Rob Kearney demands more from young Leinster squad in World Cup year

Rob Kearney noted that Leinster are going back to the future in a bid to consign last year's disappointment to a footnote in their history.

Although they reached the semi-final of the Champions Cup and came within millimetres of squeezing past the defending European champions, Toulon, in Marseille, the disappointment of a fifth-place finish in the Guinness Pro12, which saw them miss out on the play-offs, and the largely uninspiring rugby, cost Matt O'Connor his position.

Leinster looked to the bootroom, so to speak, and decided that former captain and last season's forwards' coach, Leo Cullen, is to fulfil what appears to be an open-ended position as interim head coach,with Kurt McQuilkin, Girvan Dempsey and John Fogarty, making up his backroom staff.

Warm-up matches

Despite being ensconced with Ireland for the most part as the national side completes pre-season training and prepares for four upcoming World Cup warm-up matches, Kearney has been impressed with the work Cullen is doing, not least in reminding the younger players of the culture that made Leinster successful and the responsibilities to uphold those values.

It was something that had been absent, he feels.

“Yeah, I think it’s brilliant [Cullen’s appointment]. Last year we provably moved away from some aspects of our culture; [it] seemed to diminish a bit. Leo’s huge strength is that he’s a Leinster man through and through.

“He understands what it took during those tough years to get us from a team of ‘nearlies’ to be a really good, achieving team in Europe. I think it’s brilliant.

He said the province’s Ireland contingent had been floating in and out of the Leinster camp and that “the transition has been quite seamless”.

“Guys are working hard and getting stronger and fitter. This part of the season has gone pretty well for them so far.”

When asked to expand on the comments he made about culture, the Leinster and Ireland fullback elaborated: “I just think we were in and out a little bit [last season]. We had a few injuries. I think Matt spoke a little bit about it as well.

Leadership

“Having players coming in and out of the environment [

is difficult especially] with younger guys maybe not stepping up and taking on the leadership as much as they should have. [It’s] small little things like that that can be improved on next year.”

The essence of Kearney’s message was that with opportunity comes responsibility and that the younger players must drive themselves and each other to set the required standard.

The World Cup will extract a sizeable portion of the province’s playing resources and Leinster will have to rely on the younger players to jumpstart the season in a positive fashion.

“There will be a front end [to the season] of seven weeks, where they’ll have a huge amount of work to do themselves.

“I think the guys back there in camp realise how important those first seven weeks are going to be to determining the rest of our season.

Massive focus

"And that's a massive focus for them. They are probably not looking too far ahead into the Six Nations time. They are just very focused on those first seven games.

“We haven’t had any meetings as a whole group just yet. We’ve sort of been in and out on different programmes. There are 50 guys now who are trying to get through their pre-seasons. We were separated into a World Cup group and a provincial group, so we haven’t had any get-togethers yet.”

In that respect, the province confirmed two short-term contract signings in tighthead prop Jamie Hagan and Clontarf forward Tony Ryan.

The 28-year-old Hagan has 46 Leinster appearances to his name, four of which came last season while he was on a short-term loan from London Irish. Ryan, who started for Clontarf in their All-Ireland League final defeat to Lansdowne, is also signing on a short-term deal.