Rob Kearney targeting Series clean sweep

In one room, the 28-year-old has the jersey he wore for the Lions in that epic 2009 second Test defeat to South Africa in Pretoria, the Ireland kit from the same year's Grand Slam and the shirt he donned when Leinster beat Ulster to win their third Heineken Cup side by side.

Yesterday, he was modelling IRFU's latest changed jersey - although it is unlikely to make it up on to that wall given it likely to be worn just once against South Africa in November and will have been changed by the time next year's World Cup rolled around.

Adding a fourth shirt from that tournament would complete the set nicely, however, given Kearney's only World Cup campaign came to a shuddering halt when Wales stunned Ireland in 2011.

While the full-back is reluctant to be drawn into a conversation about next year's tournament with it still being more than 11 months away, he knows all of Ireland's games this season will be framed by the big prize at the end of it.

There are 12 Tests in between now and September 19, 2015 when Joe Schmidt's side face Canada and Kearney would prefer to focus on each one of those as they come.

Memories

For 24 hours from Sunday lunchtime to yesterday afternoon, the coach refreshed his players' memories about what is required in six weeks' time before they returned to their provinces.

First up are South Africa and Australia with Georgia sandwiched in between and the Leinster star knows taking a scalp would be a real statement of intent.

Asked what his target from the next international window would, be he replied: "Three from three. Without a doubt.

"We never look ahead to World Cups, but we know in the back of our mind that the teams from the southern hemisphere will be the big teams at that World Cup and we want to be beating those.

"We can't get lost (thinking about the World Cup), because your form will suffer and as soon as you start losing sight of the immediate week.. I've seen it before with other lads. It's just no-go territory."

Last season, Ireland were punished for their imbalanced approach to the November Tests, failing to fire against Australia before putting in a huge performance against the All Blacks a week later.

Subsequently it emerged that a historic tilt at New Zealand had dominated the preparations and was partly to blame for the below par display against the Wallabies.

The schedule is kinder this season and Kearney acknowledges lessons have been learnt.

"New Zealand was definitely was the focus," he admitted. "It would be unprofessional of me as a player to say that one game is more important than another. We did some South African stuff today and I'm not going to think about it now until the last week in October.

"South Africa is a huge game for us, but, considering what Australia did to us last year, that's going to hurt too.

"It's all about the start, if we get off to a good start and win against South Africa, everything is great. Lose the first one and you're under a bit of pressure."

Among the new faces at Carton House this weather is New Zealander Jared Payne who is now qualified to play for Ireland through residency.

While the Ulster back is primarily being looked at as a centre, he also offers some fresh competition to Kearney who is impressed by what he has seen so far.

"He's a really nice fellah, very skilful. He looks as if he has a lot of time on the ball, the one thing that strikes me about him is he is very complete," the 55-times-capped Ireland star said.

"There doesn't seem to be any part of his game that is drastically poorer than another. That's the biggest compliment I could pay him, he doesn't seem to have any weaknesses."

Growing

Although the growing Connacht contingent in the Ireland squad were "gracious" about their derby win since arriving in camp, Kearney admits he was "dreading" seeing them after Friday's game.

Still, he knows how important these get-togethers are to implementing Schmidt's game-plan come November given the standards the Ireland coach sets.

"It's nice to get back in to freshen up. Because after two European games, you are straight into a test with South Africa, there is high pressure, you have to be on the money and concentrate every day that everything is perfect," he said.

"Mini camps like this are good just to freshen up, get your knowledge, get a bit of clarity around our game plan. It does make a big difference."

It's all part of the process of getting another jersey up on the wall of fame.

There may be no southern hemisphere opponents in Ireland's pool, but they'll almost certainly have to beat one of the Rugby Championship sides if they want to go all the way.

That process begins against the 'Boks and Ireland are already preparing for the physical onslaught as Paul O'Connell addressed in his last huddle speech before the players went back to their respective provinces according to Kearney, who concluded: "That's going to be the winning and losing of the game. We have to be massively switched on."

The captain's message will have to sustain the players for the next six weeks before they return to Maynooth to focus on Ireland again and begin the road to London.