Still a game to play. Still time to play yourself out of the Ireland team and even the World Cup squad. Especially if you are a specialist winger. Even Tommy Bowe is feeling the heat. Right on time that furnace is being stoked by Dave Kearney.
Bowe and Andrew Trimble don Ulster white in Edinburgh this evening a few hours after Kearney completes Paul O'Connell's last ever Captain's Run in Dublin. Not that we're forgetting Fergus McFadden or Craig Gilroy but working off clear evidence, those cuts have already been made.
Keith Earls and Luke Fitzgerald seem guaranteed to travel while Dave Kearney has a real chance.
‘Touch wood’
“Keith had been selected in pretty much every squad we named in the last two years,”
Joe Schmidt
explained. “It’s just that he got an injury every time so touch wood, he’s put himself [right].”
That seems to echo the Schmidt sentiment when picking Fitzgerald, and dropping Simon Zebo from the match day squad, for the Six Nations decider at Murrayfield last March.
Right now Kearney is apparently the form winger in training with further proof being the briefest of runs off the bench a fortnight ago when he immediately broke the seemingly impregnable Scottish defence.
“Dave Kearney hasn’t had a chance really yet,” added the coach. “He had a cameo and didn’t do himself a disservice in that cameo.”
This chance has been earned and will be no surprise to the few disgruntled, albeit loyal, Leinster souls who suffered the fag end of last season at the RDS. It was awful stuff but Kearney's aggressive intent and directness provided some small consolation.
In his mind the season had only just begun, following cruciate damage that blacked out 2015, having been the resident Irish left wing when the Six Nations title was captured in Paris the previous year.
“I probably did feel that way actually,” said Kearney. “I think Treviso and Edinburgh were our last two games. I did start to feel pretty good. I had a shoulder injury before that which kind of put me on another backward step but I did feel good at the end of the season.
“We had three, four weeks off to let the body heal but I was ready to go in July.”
Others, like Bowe and Trimble, were not so primed. Kearney, 26 now and looking more powerful than ever, is an established international with all eight caps coming since Schmidt took over in November 2013, but he’s yet to be seen as a regular at Leinster. That’s for obvious reasons like his brother, Fitzgerald, Fergus McFadden, Isa Nacewa, even Andrew Conway and of course injury.
When first seeing this Clongowes Wood, goal-kicking fullback in 2007 we had already heard another one was coming. He didn’t disappoint.
Eldest brother Richie played flanker on Gordon D’Arcy’s 1997 schools team. Then there was Rob, who showed himself to be a 15 of limitless potential as far back as 2005 and had duly become Lions Test fullback by 2009.
Dave Kearney is the biggest brother, possibly the quickest too, so the idea of being third in the pecking order hardly fazed him when training cranked up at Carton House during this summer.
Now comes his chance, his real chance, in direct opposition to George North.
“I’ve faced George a few times,” he said matter-of-factly. “He’s one of the best wingers in the world but I think that will bring out the best in me. You always want to test yourself against the best.
“You just got to keep him in as tight as you can, not give him much space, he’s obviously a serious power athlete. Very fast when he gets going. You can’t give him too much space cause he’ll definitely take it.”
Interesting dynamic
Being alongside the brother with Earls on the left wing and Fitzgerald at outside centre makes for an interesting dynamic.
Regardless of what happens he won’t stray too far from the mobile on Sunday. Cut day.
“The lads have joked about keeping your phone off for the day and just heading to Carton House the next day. It’s going to be nervous for everybody. I don’t know how it’s going to work or what’s going to happen.
“I just need to do the simple things right, have a good game, not try and force things when it’s not right. Wait for things to happen. If you work hard enough you’ll put yourself in the position.”
So far he’s done that.
