Rob Kearney: This is my biggest year

Rob Kearney agrees that the calendar year to come will amount to the most important of his career — but not just because of a certain appointment in Japan.

The Leinster full-back will turn 33 in March, 10 days after Ireland’s defence of their Six Nations title comes to an end with a game against Wales, and all thoughts will turn towards the east once the final whistle sounds in Cardiff. In an international sense, at any rate. Leinster will still have a Guinness PRO14 crown to back up and, odds are, a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final to contest in their bid to build on last season’s success when seeing off Racing 92 in an edgy decider in Bilbao.

“At the start of the season, you’re going after things. You’re not defending anything. You’re chasing more trophies. Yeah, it’s probably the biggest season of my career because it’s the one that we’re in. It’s the next one.

“I won’t have a World Cup (again) and you throw that in at the back. That will be the last opportunity to play in one. I’ve been in the game long enough to know that you have to strip everything right back. It is cliched to look at the next game but it’s very true.”

Kearney returns from a dead leg to play his first game in a month, against Ulster today, but sporadic absences for club and country in recent years have invariably increased his market worth given his challengers have failed to mirror his dependability in the position.

Jordan Larmour’s efforts in green last November maybe typify that. “I don’t think November showed up that much. The public might see a couple of dropped balls and, all of a sudden, think ‘oh, he’s not able for full-back. He’s showed time and time again, provincially and at European level, that he is absolutely able for it.

“Perception can, sometimes, be a dangerous enough thing.”