Rob Kearney withdrew from Rugby in 2021 as one of the most decorated players in Irish history, leaving the sport after four titles of six nations, four triumphs of the Champions Cup and two tournaments as a British and Irish lion in 2009 and 2013.
For many people, he is best remembered for his sensational shows in lions Colors against South Africa during the 2009-a tour when he really announced himself in a world scene, demonstrating an almost unclear skill under a high ball.
Greeting from the Louth district on the eastern coast of Ireland, Kearney’s magnificent air force did not arise in any small part of the fact that Rugby is far from the first love of his hometown, nor the sport he played the most. On the contrary, this is the football of the dish.
“I was from a relatively sporty family, but I am from Louth district who didn’t have much rugby. It was a real Gaelic football circuit,” says Kearney Heavenly sports.
“I was lucky that the two seasons did not collide or collided too much and I could play Gaelik football loads during the summer and rugby in winter.
“Rugby was a real love and while I always lost Gaelik football a huge amount. I’m happy with the road I chose.”
Bizarrely a seventh cousin of former US President Joe Biden, Kearney looks back at the 2009 Lions tour and reveals the third test against Springbox to avoid a whitewashed series after two extremely narrow opening losses got much more than a Rugby game.
It was a day when the future of the tournament of the tournament was under discussion, and the players felt it.
“There was a terrible pressure on the squad because it was all of a sudden not just for the 2009 class,” Kearney says.
“We have felt that we had a real responsibility for the future of the Lion jersey and what it means to people. There was a big conversation about it during the week.
“Ian McGeekan (2009 main coach), undoubtedly a legend of the lion for so many years, was not shy to emphasize it and setting a real responsibility to us to perform and win.
“There were real questions about the future of lions and that was extremely difficult for us as players because there were much more than just 80 minutes Rugby in the line.
“The legacy and story of the lion, what they are looking for, what we wanted future generations to think about the lions was everything on the line that day.”
The third test against South Africa to avoid an entertainment in the 2009 lion tour became ‘greater than 80 minutes Rugby’, Kearney says
Such a story had aggravated and then exploded in consciousness due to a loss of the Lion’s series, which was guaranteed to extend when the steyn landlocked 54 meters in height with the last blow of the second test for a 28-25 victory of South Africa.
The 2005 tournament in New Zealand and the 3-0 series loss under the Clive Woodward had tried a disaster, while the 2001 tournament in Australia under Graham Henry had seen the lions throw the chance for winning at an eventual loss of series 2-1.
The loss in 2009 meant that the lions would have been without a series win since 1997 for 16 years at least until 2013 – a tour of Australia would continue to win 2-1.
For many, the successive whitening of the 3-0 series would be unacceptable and potentially worthy of ending the four-country-like tourist tradition.
“Thankfully we put a really good performance and won well,” Kearney says, as the lions played with anger to secure a 28-9 victory.
Lions defeated South Africa 28-9 in Johannesburg, and have continued to reach a 2013 Win VS Australia series and series 2017 VS New Zealanda draw
‘I was on the ground fantasy: from waiting to lose to prove Lion Pretyscorer’
Earlier in 2009, Kearney was part of a Slam Grand of six nations – the first for Ireland since 1948 – but he remembers seeing the Luan team’s announcement alone, unusually suffering from a mumps.
“I remember exactly where I was while I was quite sick at the time, in fact,” he says. “I hadn’t played for leinster within a few months and I was home myself.
“I was incredibly pleased, but I had mumps, which was quite serious and I was not sure if I would be able to go to the tour. From where I was in the way the tour of me ended was very surprising.”
Kearney traveled to the 2009 Lion tour at the back of Ireland’s first six nations Grand Slam since 1948
It is easy to forget such would be Kearney’s eventual influence, but Lee Bureau of Wales was set as the lions of the first full choice, with the first he had fought with a clumsy injury.
Byrne suffered a 37 -minute foot injury at the opening test in Durban, and then a serious finger fracture in the exercise to exclude it completely after that.
Kearney shone from the bench and began in a second test in which he slipped to try only in the seventh minute.
“I was not disappointed because I knew that Lee Byrne was always in the car’s seat to start my first test. I chose a dead foot against the Western province that left me for a few weeks, so I was honest I was absolutely pleased to be in the squad.
“I wasn’t expecting to be because both a back and out, it’s unusual to get one of those bench positions.
“The second test was phenomenal and really a dream came true. I thought I was living in a fantasy land because eight days before I was not even waiting to enter the squad. And here I was starting, marking the opening test.
“All that game was a little fantasy, because there are days in your career where you are simply perfect and completely in your course. That all you do seems to work. I was very lucky to have one of those days in the largest stage for lions.”
Kearney encountered to score in the corner for the opening test of the second test vs Springbox
For all that his performances were good spectacular in South Africa that summer, the two opening tests had, however, brought two losses.
For the then 23-year-old, she proved massively in opposition.
“Really was. I did a Heavenly Interview with Miles Harris afterwards and he was talking about my performance, but the only thing I could think was that we would lose the series and let it slip.
“I’ve been in some disappointed dressing rooms over the years, but I will always remember that he’s really bold.
“This simply tells you that the sport is narrower and better of the borders, and that is why we love the game very much. It was really unfortunate because a decision maker would have been very special.
“If I look at the lowest periods of my career, the second test in 2009 is there.”
A degenerate and tearful Kearney after the second loss of the Last-GasP test against South Africa in Tour Lions 2009
‘Injury before 2013 the tour was so stressful – there wasn’t the same sense of achievement’
Four years later, Kearney was out of the back of a 2012 in which he was named European player of the year, but a hamstring injury shortly before his last match in the season club, suddenly left his chances at the Lions Tour in Real.
After traveling to Hong Kong with the Lion team, Kearney was left waiting in a hospital room after a scan that would determine whether he could continue in Australia or not – a moment of extraordinary anxiety.
“It was very stressful. The leinster had a final of the challenge cup the day before we left and my hamstring just didn’t feel well in heat, so I had to withdraw.
“We traveled to Hong Kong to play barbarians there and I was so worried. If the scan hadn’t come back well, I would have been sent back to Dublin.
“Thankfully the medical staff was happy that it would not be very long -term and I returned to the field two weeks later.
“Up to that point, Leigh Halfpenny was playing really well, his goal hit was phenomenal and he put himself in that first position to look for 15 jersey.”
Kearney was forced to wait until the fifth match to play in the 2013 Lions in Australia due to a Hamstring injury
Indeed, the strict reality of elite sport means experiencing the same success and the circumstances at the top are a rare phenomenon.
Kearney had to wait until the fifth match of the tournament to play in 2013 due to his hamstring, up to that point there were only two equipment to go before the first test.
After all, Halfpenny played so well that he was named the series player in Australia while Kearney lost in all three tests – something did more testing, he says, due to his 2009 memoirs.
“It was difficult because I was experienced with the incredible heights of playing in the tests in 2009. When you get a fragrance and the feeling of that, it’s the only thing you want to do again.
“I was disappointed because Tommy Bowe had an injury and had conversation inside and the outer half could be transferred to one of the wings and I would enter the 15th. There was little hope.
“Leigh had done incrediblely well, so I knew the writing was on the wall. From then on, the only way I would come in was an injury.
Kearney faced Warlatahs, Brumbies and Rebels in 2013 but left for three rehearsals
“I didn’t play in any of the test matches, and because I did in 2009, 2013 I didn’t have the same sense of achievement for me.
“Although there is a big involvement for all players and the whole team is part of a series win, it’s not the same if you are not on the test team.”
‘Not taking 100 Ireland’s lower low hats – I desperately loved it’
A source of extraordinary consistency for Ireland under Joe Schmidt, Kearney sits only outside the 10 best for most lids in Irish history.
In 2018 he became the first player from his nation to start in all 10 Grand Slam campaigns – a record he still holds alone.
However, looking back, is the 38-year-old somewhat surprisingly the names as the biggest regret of his career.
“My biggest low point wouldn’t be getting 100 lids for my country. It was always something I really wanted. It is an elite club.
“I finished at 95 Irish hats – 98 if you include the three lions – but I lost 30 matches with injury and 15 or so were a little bit of soft tissue calf or hamstring injuries that could easily have gone on my way.
“I always tell myself that it’s just a number, but it was a number that I wanted to reach with despair.”
Kearney ended up with 95 hats for Ireland, not playing again after a disappointing World Cup 2019 for the squad
As for the main points, Kearney’s mind returns to the lions.
“By becoming a lion ranks at the top.
“Playing for your country in a World Cup is extraordinary and something that every child who is in sports dreams. But the lions are so special that it ranks a little higher than that.
“There is a huge amount of prestige and story attached to that ridge. Definitely is definitely the most special thing I have achieved from a Rugby perspective.”
“Without fans there will be no competition and new research from Letshost shows that local businesses with local domain names are essential when fans are researching where to go and how to get there” – Kearney
