Robbie Kearns

Cronulla junior was one of the Western Reds’ star signings for 1996, the club’s second season in the ARL competition. Kearns was used as a reserve for NSW in the final of Super League’s Tri-Series competition in 1997 and was chosen as a reserve in the First Test against Great Britain at the end of the year. With the Perth club folding at the end of 1997 Kearns joined fellow prop Rodney Howe at Melbourne for the Storm’s debut season. Ironically, Kearns came into the third State of Origin match in 1998 following the sacking of Howe after his Storm team-mate failed a drug test. Melbourne’s run to the preliminary final propelled Kearns into the Australian Test team at the end of the year, where he made two appearances against NZ in October. Chosen in the second row in Australia’s 20-14 ANZac Test victory 1999 should have been a watershed year for the tough prop but injury and bad luck conspired to ruin his season. Chosen in NSW’s State of Origin team Kearns suffered a broken collarbone when thrown from a horse in a ‘team bonding session’ during the Blues’ camp and subsequently missed the series. Returning to the field a corked thigh kept him out of Melbourne’s victorious grand final team and Australia’s Tri-series success. In 2000 Kearns returned to his best form - playing prop in the Blues’ whitewash of Queensland and appearing in Test matches against NZ and Papua New Guinea and in Australia’s victorious World Cup squad. In England Kearns played in all six matches of the competition including the 40-14 win over NZ in the final. A rib injury kept Kearns out of the last two matches of the State of Origin series in 2001 and the Australian Test team that beat NZ in July. Despite Melbourne’s failure to make the semi-finals he was named in Australia’s forward pack on the 2001 Kangaroo Tour. After playing in the warm-up Test against Papua New Guinea, Kearns appeared in all three Tests on the Ashes tour. Kearns rep career seemed to winding down, especially after he was stripped of the Storm captaincy by coach Mark Murray in 2002, but his highly-consistent form saw him again selected for NSW in 2003. The veteran prop returned to the Australian team for the one-off Test against NZ in July and made his international swansong on the 2003 Kangaroo Tour in which he played in all three Tests (it was Kearns who was hit in a high tackle that led to the dismissal of Great Britain forward Adrian Morley in the First Test of the series). Kearns announced his retirement as a player at the end of the 2005 season.