Rob Kearney
Encyclopedia
Robert Kearney also referred to as Rob Kearney, is an Irish rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 footballer who currently plays for UCD
University College Dublin R.F.C.
University College Dublin Rugby Football Club is the rugby club of University College Dublin, based in Dublin, Ireland. They play their home games at UCD Bowl. The club was founded in 1910 and they won their first trophy, the Leinster Junior Challenge Cup, in 1914. In 1924 they won their first...

, Leinster
Leinster Rugby
Leinster Rugby, usually referred to simply as Leinster, is an Irish professional rugby union team based in Dublin, representing the Irish province of Leinster, that competes in the RaboDirect Pro 12 and also competes in the Heineken Cup...

 and Ireland
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...

. As a youth he also played rugby union for Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1814, it is one of Ireland's oldest Catholic schools, and featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the...

 and Gaelic football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...

 for Louth
Louth GAA
The Louth County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or Louth GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Louth. The county board is also responsible for the Louth inter-county teams....

 in the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship
All-Ireland Minor Football Championship
The All-Ireland Minor Football Championship is the premier "knockout" competition for under-18 competitors of the game of Gaelic football played in Ireland...

. Born and raised in the Cooley Peninsula
Cooley peninsula
The Cooley Peninsula is a hilly peninsula in County Louth, Ireland, which includes towns such as Omeath, Carlingford and Greenore.-Geography:...

, Kearney, like many of his peers, got involved in athletics at an early age. The dominant sport in the area was (and is) Gaelic football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...

. As a youth, Kearney played Gaelic for Naomh Mhuire, and in the Cooley Kickhams underage setup, before graduating to the Cooley senior football team at the relatively young age of 16.

Secondary Education

Kearney (Pronounced Car ' Nee) attended Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College
Clongowes Wood College is a voluntary secondary boarding school for boys, located near Clane in County Kildare, Ireland. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1814, it is one of Ireland's oldest Catholic schools, and featured prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the...

 in Co. Kildare
Kildare
-External links:*******...

 for his secondary education. He then went on from his Leaving Certificate
Leaving Certificate
The Leaving Certificate Examinations , commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert is the final examination in the Irish secondary school system. It takes a minimum of two years preparation, but an optional Transition Year means that for those students it takes place three years after the Junior...

 to attend University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

.

UCD

Kearney attended University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

 where he studied Arts and played for the rugby team
University College Dublin R.F.C.
University College Dublin Rugby Football Club is the rugby club of University College Dublin, based in Dublin, Ireland. They play their home games at UCD Bowl. The club was founded in 1910 and they won their first trophy, the Leinster Junior Challenge Cup, in 1914. In 1924 they won their first...

. In 2005 he helped the U-20s team win the McCorry Cup, beating Trinity College in the final.

Leinster

Kearney played for Leinster
Leinster Rugby
Leinster Rugby, usually referred to simply as Leinster, is an Irish professional rugby union team based in Dublin, representing the Irish province of Leinster, that competes in the RaboDirect Pro 12 and also competes in the Heineken Cup...

 at both schoolboy and U-19 level before going onto represent them as a senior. He scored a hat-trick of tries on his debut for Leinster in the pre-season friendly win over Parma.

He then made his Magners League debut for Leinster in 2005 in a 22–20 defeat away to the Ospreys. He would go on to make 32 appearances in the competition, scoring 8 tries, with 3 penalties during a period in September 2006, when usual place kicker, Felipe Contepomi
Felipe Contepomi
Felipe Contepomi is an Argentine rugby union footballer. A fly-half and centre, he currently plays for Stade Francais of the French Top 14; he made his debut for the club in November 2009 after recovering from a torn ACL suffered in a 2008–09 Heineken Cup match with his previous club, Magners...

 was injured. Kearney then played in his first Heineken Cup
Heineken Cup
The Heineken Cup is one of two annual rugby union competitions organised by European Rugby Cup involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the six International Rugby Board countries in Europe whose national teams compete in the Six Nations Championship: England, France, Ireland,...

 game in a 19–22 defeat against Bath
Bath Rugby
Bath Rugby is an English professional rugby union club that is based in the city of Bath. They play in the Aviva Premiership league...

 at the RDS
Royal Dublin Society
The Royal Dublin Society was founded on 25 June 1731 to "to promote and develop agriculture, arts, industry, and science in Ireland". The RDS is synonymous with its main premises in Ballsbridge in Dublin, Ireland...

 later that same season. It was the first of 10 appearances scoring 4 tries in the process. He was part of Leinster's Heineken Cup winning team in 2009.

Ireland

Kearney represented Ireland at schoolboy
Ireland national schoolboy rugby union team
The Irish Schoolboys rugby union team is the national team for secondary school students and under-18 players in Ireland.-Role:The Irish Schoolboys side represents the nation against youths of other nations....

, U-19 and A
Ireland A national rugby union team
The Ireland Wolfhounds are the second national rugby union team behind the Irish national side. They have previously competed in the Churchill Cup together with the England Saxons and the full national teams of Canada and the United States as well as selection of other nations' 1st, 2nd and 3rd...

 level before he was called up to the senior
Ireland national rugby union team
The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...

 squad for the 2008 Six Nations Championship
2008 Six Nations Championship
The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 114th...

. He was first called into the Irish training squad for 2005's autumn internationals and toured with Ireland A in the summer and played in the Churchill Cup
Churchill Cup
The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams from a wide array of countries....

. In April 2007, he was named in the Irish squad to tour Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 in the summer and earned his first cap on 2 June 2007. During the 2008 Six Nations Championship
2008 Six Nations Championship
The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the 114th...

 he scored 2 tries, one against Scotland
Scotland national rugby union team
The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...

 and one against England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

. He was a member of the victorious Ireland team that won the 2009 Six Nations Championship
2009 Six Nations Championship
The 2009 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2009 RBS 6 Nations because of the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the tenth Six Nations Championship, an annual rugby union competition contested by the six major Northern Hemisphere rugby union national teams...

, Triple Crown
Triple Crown (Rugby Union)
In rugby union, the Triple Crown is an honour contested annually by the four national teams of the British Isles who compete within the larger Six Nations Championship: England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. If any one team manages to win all their games against the other three they win the...

 and Grand Slam
Grand Slam (Rugby Union)
In rugby union, a Grand Slam occurs when one team in the Six Nations Championship manages to beat all the others during one year's competition...

. One of the most famous incidents in Kearney's career was a high tackle incident involving Italy's Andrea Masi in the first minute of the game. The incident was taken as an indication of the danger posed by Kearney in attack.

British and Irish Lions

On 21 April 2009, Kearney was named as a member of the British and Irish Lions
British and Irish Lions
The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 for the 2009 tour to South Africa
2009 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa
The 2009 British and Irish Lions Tour to South Africa was an international rugby union tour which took place in South Africa from May to July 2009....

. He made his Lions test debut as a substitute in the 26–21 1st Test defeat in Durban. Due to an injury to Lee Byrne
Lee Byrne
Lee Martin Byrne is a Welsh international rugby union rugby player, who plays for ASM Clermont Auvergne in the Top 14 and Heineken Cup...

, Kearney was selected again for the second test in Pretoria. He scored the only try for the Lions, however they lost 28–25. He then played in the final test in Johannesburg
Ellis Park Stadium
Ellis Park Stadium, also known because of its sponsorship by The Coca-Cola Company as Coca-Cola Park, is a rugby union and association football stadium in the city of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It hosted the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was won by the country's...

 where the Lions won 28–9.

External links

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