“For me, the best way to drive standards is through your actions. It’s not necessarily always talking, piping up and bringing lads with you. The best way I can drive standards is making sure I’m training as well as I can and making as few errors as possible.”

Source: Donall Farmer/INPHO

Limiting the errors and playing to the best of his ability has been frustratingly out of Kearney’s reach at times last year. After clocking up over 80 minutes even as a replacement in the closing stages of the Champions Cup, he could have slipped in an easy throwaway line about how he now feels 100% fit. But 100% is perfection, flawless and Kearney has cursed his body too often over the past 18 months to see 100%.

“You don’t get perfect at it, you only just get better at managing and dealing with it.

“There have been years gone by where I’ve been freaked out about not having the perfect full preparation and not having the three or four full 80 minutes leading up into and it is wasted energy.

“I can only do what I do and prepare now as best that I can, like I say, I have been in a lot worse places coming into the start of a game.”