Irish rugby ace Rob Kearney looks to the future as he says: "It"s up to us to ...

Rob Kearney fears Ireland will get left behind if they don’t push on from their Six Nations triumph.

The full-back says the standard of World Cup contenders is increasing across the globe.

So while Ireland were pleased to chalk up two wins in Argentina, they know the performances were well short of the mark.

“We always try and judge ourselves by performances, while results are important,” said Kearney.

“If, after winning the Six Nations, we are striving to be proper World Cup contenders then you have to judge yourself on performances.

“We want to build a squad here that can be World Cup contenders, we’ve always said that on our day we can match or beat the best.

“But the standard is increasing right across the world. New Zealand are getting hard to beat, the English are getting strong and South Africa bashed Wales.

“We have to keep evolving and improving because, if we don’t, we’ll be left behind.”

Kearney is looking forward to a break as he reflects happily on the campaign just gone.

He said: “I’m very happy with how it went. I think it has been one of my best seasons.”

Kearney admits the short length of the tour to Argentina, and having to twice move from their Buenos Aires base for the games in Resistencia and Tucuman, took a toll.

“It’s difficult when these are two very different areas of the world. It was nice to get to Buenos Aires for a few days, but it has been challenging.

“Any tour, when there’s a fair bit of travel; it went very quickly, there was a lot of rush.

“We played poorly enough, we turned over a lot of ball, our rucking was poor. We had a huge amount of possession, but we lost a lot of rucks and it was hard for us to build phases, keep the ball.

“Still, two from two is not a bad result for us,” he added.

Meanwhile, Emerging Ireland boss Dan McFarland has rung the changes for tomorrow’s IRB Nations Cup clash with Uruguay (2pm Irish time).

McFarland’s side eased past Russia 66-0 in the first game, which was called a halt after just 45 minutes due to an electrical storm.

John Ryan, Bryan Byrne and Richard Lutton all earn their first starts of the tournament in the front row for the clash in Bucharest.

Blly Holland comes into partner Mick Kearney in the second row, while Tommy O’Donnell moves from openside to blindside flanker. Sean Dougall is named at openside.

They are joined by Paddy Butler at No.8 to make up the back row trio.

A freshened-up centre pairing sees Brendan Macken start alongside Eoin Griffin.

JJ Hanrahan is named at out-half with Luke McGrath coming in at scrum-half.

Craig Gilroy is at full-back with skipper Johne Murphy and Michel Allen completing the back three.

EMERGING IRELAND: Gilroy, Murphy, Macken, Griffin, Allen, Hanrahan, McGrath; Ryan, Byrne, Lutton, Kearney, Holland, O’Donnell, Dougall, Butler.

Article source: http://www.espnscrum.com/englandclub/rugby/story/229847.html

Irish rugby ace Rob Kearney looks to the future as he says: "It"s up to us to ...