Rugby

Six Nations: Ireland transition no excuse for Rob Kearney

Ireland full-back Rob Kearney is aiming for two wins from their last two Six Nations outings.
Ireland full-back Rob Kearney is aiming for two wins from their last two Six Nations outings. Ireland full-back Rob Kearney is aiming for two wins from their last two Six Nations outings.

THAT Ireland are in the middle of a transitional period cannot be used as an excuse says full-back Rob Kearney.

The back-to-back Six Nations champions have had the crown tumbled from their head after three winless games of this year’s championship.

A draw with Wales and a narrow defeat by France left them hanging on by a thread, and England took the scissors to it in their 21-10 win at Twickenham last weekend.

On top of the retirement of Paul O’Connell, injuries have played a key part. Kearney was one of just seven from the side that beat England 19-9 in Dublin last season who began the game in Twickenham.

“You know, it happens every team and you go through periods of transition. When there's a lot of injuries and guys unavailable, it sort of forces you through a little transition too.

"In saying that it's important that we don't use that as an excuse either, we have to be very rational about it.

"The guys who do take the field have to make sure they're doing a job. Now in saying that I do think our performance [against England] was a lot better than over the last couple of weeks, but just those couple of opportunities, if we can take them at the outset of that game I think it would be very different,” said the experienced Leinster man.

Joe Schmidt’s side have been battered publicly for an apparent lack of invention in their attacking game.

They host Italy and Scotland at the Aviva in their final two games and they will Kearney is aiming for something tangible from the visible improvement against England.

”Yeah it's disappointing, we're fighting it out and we've got two massive games to make sure we're not scrambling around at the bottom.

"So we're disappointed but we need to make sure that we stay confident and that we keep trusting the system and make sure that some of those opportunities pay off.

“Joe’s been really positive with us. He still picks the game apart and if there are areas that we've been poor on or need to improve on.

“He'll still give it to us but before the game he was very confident in us, he told us to go out and play and express ourselves and I think we did that a bit more and conditions helped us massively.”