For such an esteemed player in an Ireland jersey, the final game of Rob Kearney’s career in green was desperately disappointing.
A four-time Six Nations champion in 2009, 2014, 2015, and 2018, Kearney was still going strong with Leinster and Ireland ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
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That tournament was to turn out to be an infamous failure for Ireland, as they fell to a disastrous defeat to Japan in the pool stages before taking a battering from New Zealand at the quarters.
Losing to New Zealand marked the end of Joe Schmidt’s tenure in charge, and it would ultimately turn out to be Rob Kearney’s final game in green as well.
The Leinster veteran started at full-back against the All Blacks, on one of the toughest days the Irish team has endured of late.
It was not an ending befitting of Rob Kearney’s illustrious Ireland career – and he has now revealed that it would not have been, had he had his “own way.”
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Rob Kearney reveals abrupt ending to Ireland career
19 October 2019; Ireland players, from left, Peter O’Mahony, Rob Kearney, Cian Healy, and Iain Henderson look on as New Zealand score their sixth try during the 2019 Rugby World Cup Quarter-Final match between New Zealand and Ireland at the Tokyo Stadium in Chofu, Japan. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Rob Kearney spoke to Gavin Andrews and his former Ireland teammate Conor Murray on BBC Ireland’s Rugby Social podcast this week, and reflected on the difficult end to his Ireland career.
After the disaster of the 2019 World Cup, Andy Farrell replaced Joe Schmidt as Ireland head coach, a change that has famously brought great success to the national team.
One of the first big calls Farrell made, it has been revealed, was to cut Rob Kearney from the squad for the Six Nations.
Kearney revealed that he was preparing to feature in the Six Nations, before being told otherwise by the incoming Ireland coach.
Kearney: “My international career didn’t get cut short but it ended rapidly.”
Murray: “Yeah you didn’t get to…didn’t get a proper…”
Kearney: “No…not on my terms, no, it wasn’t. It was just after the World Cup. I played the World Cup matches and then Andy Farrell came in and picked his new squad. The Six Nations was only three months away. So, in my head I was thinking, ‘Well if I was good enough to start at the World Cup last month, sure it might be a bit more…”
Murray: “So that was it? You were just out of it?”
Kearney: “Cut.”
Not only that, but Kearney revealed that the manner of the phone call that ended was Ireland career was particularly abrupt.
It was a very, very quick phone call.
It certainly sounds like a brutal way for your test career to conclude.
Of course, very few sportspeople get a fairytale ending, but it’s evident there’s a tinge of disappointment for Rob Kearney that both his Ireland and Leinster careers ended in deflating manner.
I didn’t [get a send off or lap of honour].
Not that you crave that or you want it – why does anyone deserve that?
But then, COVID hit, and all the stadiums were shut. My last game for Leinster was in an empty stadium. My last game for Ireland was [being] knocked out in the quarter-finals in Japan.
Kearney also admitted that the manner in which his career in Ireland came to an end influenced his decision to briefly continue his playing career in Australia, where he lined out for Western Force for a single season in 2021.
A stalwart of Irish rugby, Rob Kearney certainly found no sympathy from Andy Farrell at the conclusion of his Ireland career.
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