JOE caught up with Rob Kearney recently for a chat about Ireland’s victorious Six Nations campaign, some busy weeks ahead, BOD’s farewell and, of course, the Boring Kearney Twitter account.
Some might say that professional athletes have an easy time of it, but Rob Kearney is certainly a busy man at the moment.
Two weeks on from being part of an Irish team that sealed only our second ever Six Nations Championship in Paris, Rob was togging out for Leinster in a typically fiercely-contested clash with Munster at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening, ahead of a daunting looking trip to Toulon for a Heineken Cup quarter-final this weekend.
Should that go to plan, there will be semi-finals to look forward to in that competition and the Rabo Pro 12, ahead of a tour to Argentina in the summer and a World Cup a little over a year down the line.
Hell, when we caught up with Rob, he was supposed to be on a day off, but was making his way down from a photo shoot to promote Audi quattro® back near home in the Cooley Mountains and was due in Farmleigh House for a special reception honouring Ireland’s Six Nations winners attended by government ministers Leo Varadkar and Michael Ring.
He might be flat out at the moment, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. We caught up with Rob ahead of the Munster match last week to talk about his busy schedule, Ireland’s Six Nations win, Brian O’Driscoll’s emotional farewell and how he gets as much of a kick out of the Boring Kearney account on Twitter as the rest of us.
JOE: Two weeks on Rob, have you come down from the high of winning the Six Nations yet?
Rob Kearney: Yeah definitely, we came down very quickly afterwards, to be honest. I don’t know if it was because I was involved in the Grand Slam in 2009 and maybe I was sort of expecting the same type of celebrations but it seemed as if this one was forgotten about a little quicker by both the players and the country.
I think the fact that we’re’ into such a big inter-provincial game and into a big Heineken Cup game afterwards everyone moved on very quickly. We were back in training four or five days after the game and probably preparing for Munster pretty quickly.
JOE: I suppose it helps focus the minds that all of the games between now and the end of the season are big ones? Do you prefer the pressure of big games week after week to having a break every now and again?
RK: I think it’s better with the momentum carrying you into big game after big game because you know you can’t afford to lose focus at all. I think that was one of the other reasons we’ve moved on define Leinster’s season, definitely in terms of the Heineken Cup.
JOE: Going back to the Six Nations Rob, there seemed to be a confidence about Ireland this year that hadn’t been there for whatever reason in the last few years. Did you as players notice that and would you say that the confidence came about as a result of the performance against the All-Blacks, even if the result didn’t go the right way?
RK: I think anytime you’ve got new management coming in there’s a complete clean slate, it’s wiped free so it’s almost as if it’s a new beginning, I think you always get a positive reaction from a team in any sport right across the board. I think everyone realised that we were underachieving in the last few years because there’s a quality squad there with quite a few world-class players and we always knew that we weren’t fulfilling our full potential.
The game against New Zealand was nice in that we showed that on our day we have the capabilities to be a world class team. Obviously falling up short was hugely disappointing and we didn’t get the bit of luck we needed but I think because we had finished strongly in November it was good for us to bring that right through to the six nations.
JOE: You obviously had experience of working under Joe Schmidt with Leinster, but did you notice the extent of the impression he appeared to make on players from the other provinces. Was it a case that they didn’t realise just how good he was until they worked with him up close?
RK: I think that was always going to be the case that they weren’t going to realise his true coaching talent until they actually worked with him and I suppose it’s not something that we as players would discuss too much amongst ourselves, ‘How do you think this coach is or that coach is?’. Saying that, in passing and with little chats you’d have (with players from the other provinces) you could sense that they were very impressed with him.
JOE: Listening to Joe since the Six Nations, he’s not resting on his laurels at all and is already looking to Argentina, to the next Six Nations and even to the World Cup. As a player, do you have to think like that or is it dangerous to think too far ahead.
RK: Once a player starts to think like that you’ve lost all focus and you lose track of the present and what’s important. One of Joe’s biggest strengths, and we’ve seen it with Leinster in the past few years, is, he would take the approach that ‘OK, we’ve won the Heineken Cup and we’re in the final of the Rabo’ but to be able to go and do the exact same thing the following year is a good insight into how he manages his players and his team and how the guys manage themselves too by never getting ahead of themselves.
JOE: Speaking of the World Cup, one man who won’t be around for it is Brian O’Driscoll. Obviously he was given a great farewell by Irish rugby fans, but did he come in for a lot of slagging within the camp for being the focus of so much attention in the last few weeks or did you just leave him to it?
RK: Ah we left him to it really. I think we all knew that he was going to get such a big send off and I suppose we were all enjoying it too because it’s a new thing for Irish sport and even sport in general; certainly from my recollection I don’t remember a player in any sport getting such a big send-off and it was great to be a part of.
Apart from the fact that he deserves it all too, what a fairy-tale finish he had in the end and as I said, we were all just delighted to be a part of it.
JOE: Back to Leinster Rob and ahead of the Munster game there was a lot of talk about a supposed slight on behalf of the Munster players with all the Leinster players in the Six Nations squad. Does that create more of an edge or is it something that doesn’t have any effect on the players whatsoever?
RK: I don’t think the game needed much more of an edge but lo and behold, the media have done a good job of giving it more of an edge anyway; I think it’s probably a little bit over the top and I don’t think it warrants that much attention. It’s a great game and to be able to sell it out and have such interest in it around the country is great, I just hope we don’t get too much lost into the selection issues that are floating around and I’d hate it to be to the detriment of the national team down the line.
The Irish team suffered over the last few years because of the provinces doing so well and I think now we’re in a really good place where all the provinces are going really strongly in Europe, we’ve just won a championship and it’s probably as strong as Irish rugby has ever been. I think it’s really important that we don’t lose sight of that, so different angles and perceptions here and there doesn’t affect what we have with the national side.
JOE: Is it a cliché that players enjoy playing in those games more than any other or is there a greater fear of losing because you know each other so well?
RK: It’s probably a little bit of both. Speaking very honestly, when you get beaten by Munster it’s not a nice feeling and I’m sure the Munster lads will tell you one of the sickest feelings they would have all year is losing to Leinster, especially at home. We have them at home and you want to avoid it, it goes without saying.
I always find it a little bit difficult, when you’re in camp you create such a good bond with these guys and you become really good friends, you get on well, you play tough games together, you work hard for each other and win trophies together and then 14 days later, you’re smacking each other and doing exactly to each other what you wanted to do to the French two weeks earlier. But that’s sport, that’s the beauty of sport and it adds to the occasion.
JOE: This weekend, it’s the easy enough task of a trip to Toulon for the Heineken Cup quarter-final, but once you had been handed the tough draw it was always going to a case of playing the hand you’re dealt wasn’t it?
RK: Yeah, exactly. Once we lost the home game to Northampton we knew we were going to have to go away from home and because of the quality of the competition and the quality of the other teams we were pretty sure we were going to have to go away to a bloody good side.
We’ve all been pretty much prepared for that since we lost to Northampton in the Aviva but no doubt about it, it’s probably one of the toughest games Leinster have had in Heineken Cup history.
JOE: Finally, Rob I’m sure you’ve come across the Boring Kearney account on Twitter. Which one of yourself and Dave would be more likely to send the type of tweets it posts in real life?
RK: Are you joking me, it’s impossible not to come across it! I don’t think either of us are that boring to be honest. Most of the tweets seem as if they’re coming from me, but it’s so funny, you have to embrace it.
I waved at an approaching car as I thought it was someone I knew but as they came closer I realised it wasn’t them at all, it was hilarious
— rob&dave kearney (@boringkearney) March 31, 2014
I get a real good chuckle out of it myself so I can only imagine the effect it has on people it’s not taking the p*ss out of!
JOE: Any suspicions as to who it might be?
RK: It’s an inside job or closer, I reckon. They’re doing an unbelievably good job of hiding it but don’t worry I’ll find them someday…
JOE: And start your own parody account of the person responsible?
RK: Or worse!
JOE: Thanks a million Rob, all the best at the weekend and with the rest of the season.
RK: Cheers.
Audi Ireland brand ambassador and professional rugby player, Rob Kearney, is pictured above close to his home in the Cooley Mountains, Co. Louth with his Audi A7 S Line quattro®.
Pioneered by Audi and evolved over 30 years, Audi quattro® permanent all-wheel drive distributes power to all four wheels independently to match road conditions so wherever you are in Ireland, whatever the weather, quattro® permanent all-wheel drive delivers better acceleration and safer road holding on Irish roads. For further information visit www.audi.ie
