“Ireland or France is a fair assessment,” says Rob Kearney, as he helps preview the Six Nations, and the most likely sides to succeed. “You could argue,” he adds, “Scotland are probably the form team.”
“Ah, this nonsense again!”
That is Joe Molloy cutting in. The Virgin Media host has been in the studio plenty of times with Kearney, Shane Horgan and Andrew Trimble as they gleefully poked at the Scots and their high hopes.
“We’re very anti-Scotland in this studio!” Kearney jokes, before stating, “Well, do I think they’ll win it? No.”

“To be fair to the Scots,” Molloy offers, “I’m often the one defending them here, while you all pan them. So, do you think Scotland away will be crucial?”
“I think that is Ireland’s toughest game,” Kearney insists. “I do. On the other side of the coin, I think Scotland will be eyeing that fixture up as the one they can really go after.”
About 15 minutes later, I am sitting in a seat vacated by Molloy, catching up with Kearney. The broadcasters have opened up their studio space to preview some of their upcoming televised events for the year. Former Ireland football manager Brian Kerr is chatting to a gaggle of journalists nearby, while Olympic hurdler Thomas Barr awaits his turn. Fiona Hayes, who joined Kearney for that Six Nations discussion, will speak with me next, flagging Leinster back-row Aoife Wafer as a potential future World Rugby women’s player of the year.
Rob Kearney gives his take on the hottest topic in Irish rugby right now: Jack Crowley or Sam Prendergast for the 10 jersey? While Munster legends Alan Quinlan and Simon Zebo have advocated for Crowley to start against England, former Leinster captain Brian O’Driscoll feels Prendergast may have the edge for the championship opener.
Sam has gone to another level again for Leinster. He showed that against La Rochelle, which is a very, very tough place to go.
“I think it’s Sam,” Kearney offers. “He’s in the driving seat. To be fair to Jack, when he came on for 20 minutes against Australia (in November), he was very good. But since that game, Sam has gone to another level again for Leinster. He showed that against La Rochelle, which is a very, very tough place to go. He made a few mistakes in that game but if you come out of that with a seven or eight out of 10, which he did, you’ve come out of your very first experience of French rugby away very well.
“Jack, similarly, has struggled a little bit. Of course, it hasn’t been helped by the team he’s been playing with, the style of rugby they’re playing and everything that goes with that. His confidence, as you may see, has been a little bit off. For me, though, I think Sam starts that England game, and it is then up to him. If young guys go well for you, you just want to keep giving them exposure and as many games as you can.”
That 10 argument is no longer a three-horse race, with Ciaran Frawley slipping back, but it remains a hard one to call. Prendergast was having a mix of good and iffy against a dialled-in Bath side at the weekend, but came up with some big plays as Leinster pulled away in the second half. Crowley delivered his best game of the season at Franklin’s Gardens, albeit in a losing Munster effort against Northampton.
Kearney benefitted from that coaching show of faith when Michael Cheika awarded him a senior Leinster debut aged just 19. He was even called into Ireland’s training squad in that breakthrough season, 2005/06, but had to wait until the summer of 2007 to make his Test debut. He was 21, like Prendergast, when he got a run of starts and did not look back, playing a key role in the 2009 Grand Slam and Lions tour to South Africa.

Asked to reflect on that experience of bursting onto the scene and being feted by fans, coaches and media, Kearney begins: “It’s funny. In some respects, you don’t feel anything. You’ve no hang-ups, no stress, no anxiety, because you haven’t experienced any of that stuff. You’re literally just playing, and everything is going really well for you. You’re riding the crest of a wave.
“Maybe that is a little too simplistic, but I definitely think there is something in it – that when you’re really young, you have this youthful, carefree spirit. It’s something that obviously goes away over time. If you could just bottle up that feeling and give it to the older players, it would be great because there’s something special in it.”
Conversely, the Cooley native faced calls, as he hit the 30 mark, to be dropped for younger guns. Kearney went from being that fearless upstart to the safe and steady pair of hands. Joe Schmidt loved him as backfield sweeper, upping his defensive commitments at the expense of pushing up as a more attacking threat. Over the years, he clung on for the big games while names such as Henshaw, Zebo, Stockdale, Conway, O’Halloran and Larmour were championed for the 15 jersey.
I went from scoring tries, week in and week out, in my first season, and not doing anything wrong. Then, bang!
Taking Leinster and Ireland’s latest backline prospects, Jamie Osborne and Sam Prendergast, as examples, Kearney considers what would be going through his mind if he was still playing and they were zeroing in on his jersey.
“You would have been thinking, ‘Jeez, I wish I had that confidence’. But you also know, because you have gone on that same path, or trajectory, too, these young guys go off like a rocket and, invariably, at some point, there’s the dip. I very much had it in my second season. It was that classic second season dip. I went from scoring tries, week in and week out, in my first season, and not doing anything wrong. Then, bang! And it does come to every player. You’ve just got to hope that, for some of the guys, that drop is not off a cliff, as it often can be.”
In terms of the upcoming championship, Kearney feels England are “bubbling away nicely” despite winning only three of their past 10 matches.
“There’s a misconception about the English, that they’re not performing well and they’re scraping through games, but they had a good November. Saying that, France is the team that we’re all interested in, and excited to see, especially with them having Antoine Dupont back there again.
“That first weekend always just throws everything open, particularly if you get one upset in it. That often changes the whole complexion of the tournament.”

Closer to home, Kearney shares the island-wide leaning Ireland are not quite clicking. “November was disappointing from a performance perspective. We would’ve liked to play an awful lot better against New Zealand. We beat Argentina but the performance was flat. There was a little bit of a regression in terms of what we had seen, certainly, in South Africa and in the Six Nations before that.
“Have we gotten greedier as fans, and have our expectations gotten greater? Yeah. You could argue whether that is a good thing or bad thing, but the fact we’re here talking about titles and Grand Slams for a third championship in a row is pretty exciting stuff.”
Blue tinted glasses. Prendergast was terrible against Bath. If Rob had his way he'd change the Ireland jersey from green to blue.
Kearney hasnt the first clue - much like the Leinster supporters - but like all D4 thickos, knows where his after dinner speaking engagements exist and has to keep the cheques rolling in.
Crowley all the way. The national team can't afford to carry more inferior D4 players than it has already.