The internal power plays with the Lions, the Pro12 league final and Jared Payne are Rob Kearney’s guilty pleasures this week. Just can’t help himself.
It's not enough that the fullback faces an Ulster side who have beaten Leinster twice this season. This is a week of agendas and subtexts for Kearney, who has straddled the top long enough to know the final club game on Saturday will reverberate at many levels.
His opposite fullback, Jared Payne, will have Irish citizenship in less than 18 months; Lions coach Warren Gatland will be watching; Joe Schmidt, Jonny Sexton, Andrew Conway, Fionn Carr and Isa Nacewa will be leaving; and for Leinster almost ten months of rugby hinges on the outcome.
No emotion then.
“They’ve (Lions selectors) been watching since December and January, so every game you play is an addition of some sort,” says Kearney. “As soon as you get overly focused on outside elements, like getting selected for other things, it can play up on you.
“That’s when you can start losing focus. Of course while it’s always in the back of your mind you need to have a strong performance, it can’t be at the forefront of your thinking.
“I feel as if I’m slowly starting,” he says. “It’s all about timing when you have big tours like this at the end of the season. Once you get to June, guys’ form in January and February is forgotten.”
Payne, selected for the Barbarians against England and the Lions, recently signed a three-year deal with Ulster that will keep him in Belfast until 2016. The 27-year-old, however, will be Ireland qualified from 2014.
The suggestion of possible competition a year down the line from the talented Kiwi barely registers a blink with Kearney.
'He's a quality player'
"I think he's a quality player," he says. "I have to be honest, I'm hoping his 15 months doesn't come too quickly because I think that's all he's left. A player of his calibre is going to offer a huge amount to the Irish set up when he does come in.
“I think his greatest attribute is his consistency. He’s very few weakness and when you are looking for cornerstone positions like fullback, it’s important that every aspect of your game is at a pretty high standard. I think he’s got that.”
Among Leinster’s main considerations this week are the frailties that caught them out last year, when as European champions the week before, they couldn’t bring it home in the league decider against Ospreys.
As Kearney points out, clubs rarely get the chance to win twice at their home ground in successive weeks for en- of-season silverware. Ironically, the final is an Ulster home game, but they will come from the North having planted some doubt on their last visit.
“Getting up for two finals in a row is a difficult thing,” says Kearney. “But one thing we’ve done . . . you have to learn from these things. Last year we won the Heineken the week before the Rabo and then we lost. We were left with a pretty sick feeling.”
Not a common complaint from Leinster, you’d have to say.
