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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Sandra Mallon

'You don’t want to see them super successful' - Rob Kearney on Irish team after he retired

Former Leinster and Ireland rugby star Rob Kearney has admitted he didn’t want the Irish team to be super successful without him.

The Co Louth star retired from the sport back in November 2021 after 17 years playing.

But Rob admitted after his retirement, he didn’t want to see the Irish rugby team doing so well without him.

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He said: “It was very difficult for the first couple of years. This is probably a very selfish thing to say, but the first year or so that you’re out of the team, you don’t want to see them go on to be super successful.

“So you’re so torn, because it’s your national team.

“It’s all you ever wanted to do, you’re part of it for so long and you leave, and you probably still have a little bit of bitterness towards that.

“Then again, I think that comes down to a person’s competitiveness.

“If you weren’t a super competitive, driven person, if those things didn’t bother you, you probably wouldn’t have been there,” he told the Sunday Independent’s Life magazine.

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