FOR THOSE WHO attempt to call the position their own, the wing is a cruel position in Irish Rugby these days.
Three Lions currently dominate the back three positions, two of them missed out through injury last year and, such was the quality of the replacements, were left to sweat before earning a recall.
From the furiously paced kick-off against New Zealand in 2013, to the sweet sound of the final whistle in Paris 363 days ago, Dave Kearney played every minute of six games which still define the Joe Schmidt era (for now).
Since then, ill fortune has struck down the Louthman. A cruciate ligament injury in May opened the door for Simon Zebo in the summer and left the Leinster man with time on his hands. Time to work on his upper body strength, more time to plot his way back into Schmidt’s plans and more time to get wound up by that @BoringKearney parody account.
“It’s a bit of craic, it’s funny enough. I suppose I’d be getting angry with it if I was boring… it hasn’t touched any chords,” says the younger Kearney before joking that he’s in the process of rooting out the ‘mole’.
“I’m on the job, looking for who it is and if I find them they’re in trouble.”
As for the real world, it’s felt more real than the Guinness Storehouse ambassador would have hoped for. The knee injury is fading into the past, but so too is his string of 80-minute games in last year’s Six Nations as an AC joint injury scuppered his opportunity to impress in January.
“It’s tough at the minute now, not being involved. When I played every minute last year, to not having a minute this year is pretty tough, that’s kind of the way it goes,” the 25-year-old says philosophically.
“It’s been pretty frustrating, came back for a few games and then had a small muscle injury and missed the two ‘Quins games, came back in and started to get a bit of form back, get a bit of the rustiness out of my system.
“Castres, I started to feel a bit more confident and a bit sharper and you start to enjoy it again and the next game I came down on the shoulder and that put me back.
Pretty poor timing getting it in the Wasps game, missed the Wolfhounds game and that put me on the back foot coming in to camp. No game this weekend so I’ll hopefully get a bit of healing time.”
It’s frustrating, but not disheartening. He hasn’t made the trip to Enda McNulty’s office, saving the conversation for a psychological boost when confidence is low or if something about his game just refused to click.
The World Cup is still within Kearney’s reach and on top of his Leinster commitments, he will aim for four summer internationals where he can further his cause as a versatile back three player who is leaner and more powerful than the number 11 who helped Ireland secure a Championship in 2014.
“With injury and stuff it’s just something you just need to stay on top of yourself, you can’t let yourself get too low or too high, you want to stay at a plateau level. It’s so important during injuries that you don’t let yourself get too low or when you get setbacks you don’t get depressed about it.
Positives
“You just have to get a date in your head when you want to get back and use injury as a time when you can work and develop something else.”
Kearney is speaking in the professional sense rather than personal. Sean O’Brien used his time out to catch up on the art of shooting, Iain Henderson got his hands greasy under the bonnet of a classic Mini, the winger was under a bar, working on his upper body strength and putting on the best part of five kilos on over his lay-off.
“When you get an injury you’ve got to look at all the positives you can take out of it and use them to improve your game and improve yourself.
“93 [kilos] first game back, as the weeks go on you lose a bit, but I’m heavier than I would have been in last year’s Six Nations.
“You don’t really notice it, fitness-wise first few games back are tough but from then on it’s fine.”
Here’s hoping Kearney gets an opportunity to string games together and build that fitness to give Ireland a full array of back three options at the end of summer.
