Last season is one Dave Kearney would rather forget, although, in real time as it unfolded it was one in which he had too much time to remember. In March the winger threw his hands in the air. The hamstring wasn’t right.
Opting for a medical procedure ensured that his unavailability would extend for a number of months, having just returned to action from being on the sideline for nine months due to ankle and back injuries.
The 33-year-old featured in just four matches and with his opening try of last weekend in Leinster’s win over Parma, he has already equaled last season’s try scoring tally.
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The season before last he had 10 tries including a hat-trick and before that 12 tries with two hat-tricks against Benetton and Glasgow. A healthy Kearney’s strike rate is something Leinster have been missing.
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“As a back three player, a winger, I guess that you want to score tries,” he says. “You have that strike rate so yeah...it always changes. In the last four or five years in the way we do play we like to spread the ball out wide.
“We do put the ball out to the edges, so you do put yourself in the opportunity to score. I’ve probably racked up a few of those tries in the past four or five years I’d say. Hopefully over the next while I’ll keep rattling them up.”
Kearney has become a realist. While his attitude is never say never about Andy Farrell and the Irish team, the World Cup next year is not something that has preoccupied his free time.
With 19 caps, he has not figured in Ireland’s plans since 2019. More immediately getting into the simmering Leinster team carries its own health warnings. In an injury-free squad, James Lowe, Jordan Larmour, Tommy O’Brien and Jimmy O’Brien would take the shirt. The World Cup can sit.
“It’s probably not at the forefront of my mind at the moment considering I haven’t really been involved over the last few years,” he says as a matter of fact.
“Maybe two years ago, I felt like I could have been involved or I should have been, but I wasn’t. Never say never. At the moment I’m focusing on playing well here. Obviously, we have a very competitive squad.
“The strength and depth we have it’s like an Irish team really. Getting into this team for the bigger games, the European games is a goal of mine this season.”
Kearney is at an interesting point in his career. Brother Rob recently retired. The idea of a career coming to a close and holding burning ambition, while knowing that another serious injury could be career-ending, seems contradictory. Far from it.
It’s part of a rugby life he has had to take in his stride. When he looks around now, he can also make a case for himself being lucky to have been involved for so long when others have not.
It doesn’t change the way Kearney thinks. The prospect of it all ending suddenly is in the corner of every player’s mind as a matter of living the life and watching how it breaks for some. The competitive part still drives him.
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“I guess you know that from when you start playing, when I was younger with the likes of Eoin O’Malley retiring and more recently Dan Leavy,” he says.
“That’s always a factor when you play rugby. Again, it is one of those things you can’t take for granted. You get that reminder so often unfortunately. It’s the nature of the game and the sport we’re in. You definitely do begin to appreciate the sport more when that happens to lads.”
Experience has given Kearney a rounded game without diminishing his appetite. The injuries of last year may have deprived him of months of pitch time but have added an edge to his ambition, a freshness to his legs and head.
Entering into his 15th season with Leinster since he came off the bench against Dragons at the end of the 2008-09 campaign brings it’s own unique perspective.
“I know a few years ago I played a lot,” he says. “I was playing most weeks. I actually remember coming into pre-season and not feeling that great (although) we had three, four or five weeks off. When you are playing every single week, it also will take a mental toll on you too.
“Sometimes you can be more mentally fatigued than physically. But yeah, this season, given the fact that I didn’t play last year, [I] feel fresh, feel ready to go again.”
One game, one try so far and a feeling the sharpness is back.
