Video: Clermont will be no cakewalk, says Kearney

How do you improve on perfection? It’s a tough task, but that’s exactly what Rob Kearney and Leinster will be looking to do in the Heineken Cup semi-final later this month.

For a little over 40 minutes against Cardiff Blues on Saturday, the reigning Champions produced the kind of free-flowing, champagne rugby that only they seem capable of and served an ominous warning to the rest of the continent about their desire to collect the Heineken Cup trophy once again in Twickenham next month.

You would hardly expect the Leinster lads to be predicting that back to back Heineken Cups will be a cakewalk, but even still, in-form full-back Rob Kearney believes a huge step-up is required if they are to overcome Clermont Auvergne next time out.

Numerous Irish sides have fallen in French graveyards over the years, but against a team who demolished Saracens on their own turf and who Kearney calls the ‘finest in France', the bar has been raised that bit higher for Joe Schmidt’s side.

We can’t wait for it to roll around and neither, it seems, can Kearney.

Check out his thoughts on the game in the video above.

Kearney was speaking at a Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain Rugby Clinic, where he took a training session with the Navan Rugby Club U17 side.