{"id":16984,"date":"2020-09-29T07:27:52","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T11:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984"},"modified":"2020-09-29T11:29:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T15:29:56","slug":"rob-kearney-signs-one-year-contract-with-western-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984","title":{"rendered":"Rob Kearney Signs One-Year Contract With Western Force"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/2.41891924.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16985\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/2.41891924.jpg 600w, https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/2.41891924-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>Ireland\u2019s most decorated player Rob Kearney has joined Australian club Western Force on a one-year contract.<\/p>\n<p>Full-back Kearney, who made 95 appearances for Ireland, moves to Perth having recently ended a distinguished 15-year career with Leinster.<\/p>\n<p>The 2012 European Player of the Year lifted the European Rugby Champions Cup four times with the province, as well six Pro14 titles and the European Challenge Cup.<\/p>\n<p>At international level, he was part of two British and Irish Lions tours, travelled to three World Cups, and won four Six Nations titles, including Grand Slams in 2009 and 2018.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am delighted to be joining the Western Force for their upcoming season and excited to play with such an ambitious club who are looking to improve on this year\u2019s campaign,\u201d the 34-year-old told his new club\u2019s website.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope to add value both on and off the field that complements the high ambition of the club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m particularly excited to immerse myself in a new performance environment and to play both with and against some of the best players and teams in the southern hemisphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look forward to moving to Western Australia to begin building relationships with my new team-mates and coaches alike and to meet the ever-growing Western Force fanbase, which also includes a strong Irish contingent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Western Force head of rugby Matt Hodgson said: \u201cHe is a player of the highest caliber that brings a wealth of experience and quality to the side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe also brings a winning mentality, having experienced so much success for his country and Leinster.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-16984\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-16984\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-16984\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland\u2019s most decorated player Rob Kearney has joined Australian club Western Force on a one-year contract. Full-back Kearney, who made 95 appearances for Ireland, moves to Perth having recently ended a distinguished 15-year career with Leinster. The 2012 European Player&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-16984\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-16984\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-16984\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=16984\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16985,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16986,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16984\/revisions\/16986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}