jezzer wrote:He wasn't assertive enough in the tackle, didn't make the ground against a very porous defence that everybody else in the backline made, took the ball into contact when there was acres of space, got pinged for holding once in the first half (and I admit I didn't see the second half bar some highlights), I assume the knockon was in the second half cause I can't remember it. All in all, you'd expect your fullback to have an absolute field day against a defence like that and Kearney didn't look great. He fielded well and kicked from hand pretty well.
This isn't the latest chapter in my ongoing hatred of all things Kearney, as some people like to see it. He has improved quite a lot this year. He's now ahead of Girve but behind Nacewa in the FB pecking order for Leinster. I think he very rarely has a complete performance, despite which people like to eulogise him, then struggle to accept the evidence in front of their faces.
Byrne came into the tour as the hot favourite for the jersey. Given the poor performance in which he was involved at the weekend, Kearney had a gilt-edged chance to stake a claim in a match where the chance of him screwing up was small enough. He didn't grab his opportunity at all, in my view.
Just a couple of things Jeezer..... you mention in the earlier part of the post that Kearney isn't assertive in defence. But you then said he is behind Nacewa for Leinster at 15. I like Isa, and he put in some cracking one-on-one tackles against Munster, but he is not very assertive either. Excluding Woods' try, he fell off tackles on Hamilton and Erinle weakly in the Final. Leinster will need to work on that with their FBs this summer.
However, I do think Kearney put in complete performances last summer, and especially against Castres at home in this season's HEC.
WRT his performance last night, I completely agree. Byrne out down a marker on Saturday, and Kearney followed him, inseatd of taking the most of last night. He offered nothing different to Byrne, and showed up as a good fielder and kicker. Byrne has those qualities too, and provides more in attack. I still think Kearney was fortunate to make the Tour.