David Kearney

[tackle-bag]

Saw he bagged another try for the under-20s last night. He seems to be the star back in that team at present, I expect he'll make the progression to senior level for Leinster in the coming years.

I wonder whether there's any prospect of converting him into an inside centre, a position in which we'll need extra cover in the years to come. From what I've seen of him, he's a big lad and a strong tackler. He also has real pace, great hands and a good kicking game which is always useful in that position. A partnership between Kearney junior and Fitzgerald somewhere down the line seems an interesting prospect.

[Dave Cahill]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yym6Y5GduO0

[oh no where do we go!]

another quality product from the schools system good to see the likes of him coming through - how did madigan do?

[tackle-bag]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yym6Y5GduO0

Absolutely blistering pace he showed there, maybe we'd be better keeping him out on the wing after all.

[simonno6]

madigan, one of the biggest bottlers in leinster schools history, missed the conversion in front of the posts after kearneys fifth minute try and proceeded to slice the return kick-off badly. England duly scored a try from the resulting line-out and regained the lead... he just doesnt have a good mental head on him.

kearneys a very good player, although i think the stand out player on the team is o'malley..

[Darce]

madigan, one of the biggest bottlers in leinster schools history, missed the conversion in front of the posts after kearneys fifth minute try and proceeded to slice the return kick-off badly. England duly scored a try from the resulting line-out and regained the lead... he just doesnt have a good mental head on him.

kearneys a very good player, although i think the stand out player on the team is o'malley..

Thats a completely Disingenuous insight to Ian Madigan's performance!!!

You neglect to mention that he then proceeded to nail some excellent place kicks, some of which a Pro would have been proud of. Also, he threw a beauty of a skip pass to put O'Malley in space for the David Kearney's try.

Indeed he did have an iffy start, but he then shown supreme mental fortitude to get himself back on the horse. Thats true class and character.

[bunty85]

madigan, one of the biggest bottlers in leinster schools history, missed the conversion in front of the posts after kearneys fifth minute try and proceeded to slice the return kick-off badly. England duly scored a try from the resulting line-out and regained the lead... he just doesnt have a good mental head on him.

kearneys a very good player, although i think the stand out player on the team is o'malley..

How nice of you

[tackle-bag]

I think Madigan's problem is that he's almost too nice a guy to be a great fly-half. He doesn't seem to have that requisite cockiness on the pitch to help him through the pressure situations. He also needs to speed up his kicking from hand; almost every time i see him play he gets charged down at least once during the game.

[simonno6]

madigan, one of the biggest bottlers in leinster schools history, missed the conversion in front of the posts after kearneys fifth minute try and proceeded to slice the return kick-off badly. England duly scored a try from the resulting line-out and regained the lead... he just doesnt have a good mental head on him.

kearneys a very good player, although i think the stand out player on the team is o'malley..

Thats a completely Disingenuous insight to Ian Madigan's performance!!!

You neglect to mention that he then proceeded to nail some excellent place kicks, some of which a Pro would have been proud of. Also, he threw a beauty of a skip pass to put O'Malley in space for the David Kearney's try.

Indeed he did have an iffy start, but he then shown supreme mental fortitude to get himself back on the horse. Thats true class and character.

Once Ireland were on the front foot darce he immediately conceded two easy points and gifted england the field position they required to strike back. This England 20's was absolutely fantastic and if we were to have any chance, we would have had to maintain a 7-0 lead for a long long time.. however, we ended up 7-5 down 3 minutes later thanks to madigan.. It may sound harsh but hes just not up to this level mentally, a true J1 player in the making if i've ever seen one. He certainly does not possess 'Mental Fortitude', as darce so coherently put it.

[Darce]

madigan, one of the biggest bottlers in leinster schools history, missed the conversion in front of the posts after kearneys fifth minute try and proceeded to slice the return kick-off badly. England duly scored a try from the resulting line-out and regained the lead... he just doesnt have a good mental head on him.

kearneys a very good player, although i think the stand out player on the team is o'malley..

Thats a completely Disingenuous insight to Ian Madigan's performance!!!

You neglect to mention that he then proceeded to nail some excellent place kicks, some of which a Pro would have been proud of. Also, he threw a beauty of a skip pass to put O'Malley in space for the David Kearney's try.

Indeed he did have an iffy start, but he then shown supreme mental fortitude to get himself back on the horse. Thats true class and character.

Once Ireland were on the front foot darce he immediately conceded two easy points and gifted england the field position they required to strike back. This England 20's was absolutely fantastic and if we were to have any chance, we would have had to maintain a 7-0 lead for a long long time.. however, we ended up 7-5 down 3 minutes later thanks to madigan.. It may sound harsh but hes just not up to this level mentally, a true J1 player in the making if i've ever seen one. He certainly does not possess 'Mental Fortitude', as darce so coherently put it.

So you don't accept that he worked his way back into the game nailing 3 tough kicks to actually keep the us in the match? You would think that to do that after such a shakey start, you would need a decent dollop of character?

You're actually talking through you're hole. Writing off a tremendously talented teenager before he's even had a chance to prove himself! Folly of the highest order. Last time I checked, we weren't teeming with Out Halves in this country.

[tackle-bag]

Irrespective of whether some of the remarks on this thread are somewhat harsh, the simple fact remains that he isn't a patch on the likes of Sexton, O'Connor, Keatley etc. Obviously, he's a couple of years younger than most of those guys but I just don't feel he has the skills package to leapfrog any of them in the 'young out-half pecking order' for the years to come.

[oh no where do we go!]

uh-oh i started a fire, there must be some angry rock boys here, sorry Ian, your ears must be burning

[bunty85]

I'm no rock boy but I think the abuse he gets is very harsh. I remember a number of players at the top level were labled as 'bottlers' at a young age and went on to be great players.

[knightro]

Is Keating of the Belvo S winning side not a more complete player?

[simonno6]

I'm no rock boy but I think the abuse he gets is very harsh. I remember a number of players at the top level were labled as 'bottlers' at a young age and went on to be great players.

name 1.. if you dont have the mental capabilities at schools level then you dont have a chance of making it further..

[bunty85]

I'm no rock boy but I think the abuse he gets is very harsh. I remember a number of players at the top level were labled as 'bottlers' at a young age and went on to be great players.

name 1.. if you dont have the mental capabilities at schools level then you dont have a chance of making it further..

I seem to remember, and I could be wrong, that BOD was labled as one for missing a kick for Blackrock in 97 in the SCT semi final. Anyhow it does now favours to anyone to lable a guy like that on the internet, we don't know how he'll turn out in the long run.

[Oscar]

I'm no rock boy but I think the abuse he gets is very harsh. I remember a number of players at the top level were labled as 'bottlers' at a young age and went on to be great players.

name 1.. if you dont have the mental capabilities at schools level then you dont have a chance of making it further..

I seem to remember, and I could be wrong, that BOD was labled as one for missing a kick for Blackrock in 97 in the SCT semi final. Anyhow it does now favours to anyone to lable a guy like that on the internet, we don't know how he'll turn out in the long run.

Rock were 2 points down against Dillon & D'Arcy's Clongowes in the semi, with about 10 minutes left, and O'Driscoll missed 6 dropgoal efforts in that time to end the game. The last one came off the post.

I think Hickie also missed a possible game-winner for Mary's in the final one year, but it was from the touchline.

Also worth remembering, David Humphreys missed a fairly straightforward shot to beat France in Lansdowne Road in '99. Ronan O'Gara kicked a total of 3 points in 2 tests in New Zealand in 2002, including missing enough points to have drawn the first test. Both of them went on to have very good overall records for place kicking accuracy, and they were in their mid-20s at the time of those disasters.

[bunty85]

name 1.. if you dont have the mental capabilities at schools level then you dont have a chance of making it further..

I seem to remember, and I could be wrong, that BOD was labled as one for missing a kick for Blackrock in 97 in the SCT semi final. Anyhow it does now favours to anyone to lable a guy like that on the internet, we don't know how he'll turn out in the long run.

Rock were 2 points down against Dillon & D'Arcy's Clongowes in the semi, with about 10 minutes left, and O'Driscoll missed 6 dropgoal efforts in that time to end the game. The last one came off the post.

I think Hickie also missed a possible game-winner for Mary's in the final one year, but it was from the touchline.

Also worth remembering, David Humphreys missed a fairly straightforward shot to beat France in Lansdowne Road in '99. Ronan O'Gara kicked a total of 3 points in 2 tests in New Zealand in 2002, including missing enough points to have drawn the first test. Both of them went on to have very good overall records for place kicking accuracy, and they were in their mid-20s at the time of those disasters.

Ye that was it I remember my Rock friends would always say how he could do it for Ireland but couldn't for Rock! O'Gara also had his mental ability questioned after Northampton HC final in 00.

[brotheroffrank]

David Kearney was looking well in today's matchday programme.....

{..at least it wasn't Mick Kearney's photo....}

[Barry]

when did Dave last have a bad game for Leinster ? been a long time