Kearney aiming to milk the most from pivotal year

It’s no secret that Ireland have endured a rocky start to what has been billed by many as the most important year in Irish rugby history.

The loss to England and under whelming performances against Scotland and Italy have dampened the mood, but for Rob Kearney the break over last weekend was a chance to hit reset and focus on the future rather than the past.

Right now, that focus is fixed on Sunday’s Six Nations clash with France at the Aviva Stadium and no further.

“I think we needed the break, especially in today’s era,” he says.

“The games are tough, so you need a few days to recover. The idea of going five weeks [in-a-row] just wouldn’t be possible.”

A 26-16 win in Rome saw Ireland secure a first bonus point of the championship, though the performance wasn’t up to optimum levels. Nevertheless, Kearney could take positives.

“The pleasing thing from the Italy game was that we were down at half-time and so we had to show a bit of character to get out of that and get the bonus point in the second half.

“The manner and the amount of mistakes that we made, the little bit of anxiety that we’re showing on the field is probably the area that we need to work on. We need to find our rhythm again. The English game was obviously disappointing as a group.

“To lose at home in Dublin is always tough, then we went away to Scotland and got a win, which no team had done in the Six Nations for three years.

“You go to the Italy game and everybody expects you to put up a big score, but they were good, to be fair to them.

“You combine them being good with us making a huge amount of uncharacteristic errors and you don’t quite get the scoreline that people expected.”

World Cup

Is there any fear that there is one eye on the World Cup next autumn?

“I don’t think so, certainly not as a player, anyway,” Kearney says.

“Maybe for the coaches, they need to be looking a bit more ahead in terms of squads and combinations and versatility and things like that.

“As a player, you’re just trying to set high standards every week, you’re trying to improve yourself and the team every week.We don’t think too far ahead to Japan and what’s coming down the line, because if you lose sight of what’s directly in front of you and your performance starts to suffer, you can find yourself on the back foot quite quickly.”

That’s certainly not something Kearney is planning on doing. Having made his Leinster debut as a teenager in 2005, he first featured for Ireland in 2007 and the century of caps is in sight, but improvement is still the aim in an ever-changing rugby landscape.

“Certainly, when I started out, I’m looking back at games that I might have played 10, 12 years ago and you say that the game has changed hugely, it’s constantly evolving” he says.

“That’s no different for the full-back role. You need to be considerably fitter now to be able to play in that backfield and you’re trying to marry so many skills into that one position.

“It’s great for me, even this far into my career, I’m still trying to improve and upskill myself in different areas of the game.”

However, no matter how impressive the effort to keep up with the times, this World Cup will be his last. Nevertheless, that’s something he is facing in an optimistic frame of mind.

“You have to just accept it, too,” he says.“You can look at it in one of two ways, you can have a bit of sorrow and say, ‘Oh, I’m never going to play in another World Cup again,’ or you can take the mindset, ‘Brilliant, what an opportunity, this is my last World Cup, I’m going to enjoy it and showcase the best version of myself,’ and do as best you can.”

Transition

Once upon a time, amateur rugby players were able to build professional careers in business while they played, but as a product of the professional era, Kearney must face that challenge when he retires,

“It is a question to be answered,” he says, “it’s not a problem but it’s definitely a challenge for players who are making that transition our of professional sport and going into the real world and trying to find a job.

“It definitely is something that can worry players and they need to make sure that they’re best-equipped to take that plunge when the time does come.

“I’m involved in a few different businesses here and there, I don’t know exactly what I want to do when I retire, but I know I’ll have enough options.

“For me, it’s just about making sure I enjoy the last few years that I have left, to really make sure that I’m having the best time possible.”

Off the field, he has been laying foundations. He’s involved in two pubs, The Bridge in Ballsbridge and Lemon & Duke in Dublin city centre, as well as being a director of Mason Alexander, which deals in recruitment, and investing in Oslo, a chain of beauty stores.

Those business interests help to fill what little downtime there.

“Rugby is a huge part of our lives, it’s a huge part of my life,” he says.

“When you’re not training, you’re making sure that you’re doing everything that you can to recover and get into the best shape as possible for the next day.

“I try to nip in to the businesses I’m involved in, learn some of the business side of things and make sure I’m upskilling myself in that department.

“They’re all in varying industries, so I’m being exposed to very different sectors of the business world.”

Would he ever consider returning to the Co Louth land that raised him?

“It’s hard to say, it’s a farm that has been in the family for four generations,” he says.

“I went away to boarding school when I was 13 years old, so the only time I’d have been back on the farm was during the summer, you might hop on the combine and mess around a bit.

“My dad still is manning the fort back there, so we need to make sure that the legacy of the farm is maintained in some shape or form.”

Having grown up on a farm on the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth, Ireland rugby player Rob Kearney certainly knows that ‘Everything Starts With Milk’.

That’s why he’s on board with the National Dairy Council as part of EU-funded campaign going by that name.

“Milk’s something that has always been a part of my diet, you try to chase a well-balanced diet and having dairy in there, that’s what it does,” says Kearney. “Particularly around performance, pre-workout and post-workout, dairy ticks a lot of the boxes in terms of your carbohydrates, your protein, after muscle gets broken down and just re-hydrating.”

Rob Kearney is an ambassador for the NDC’s Everything Starts with Milk campaign.