To the winner the spoils; to the full-back an additional emblem.
Rob Kearney is the only man in the history of Irish rugby to start two Grand Slam-winning Test matches. The precocity of some of Ireland's winners today may mean that stat is tweaked to read the "first", but however it reads, it will neatly capture Kearney's legacy when he eventually hangs up his boots.
This fact does not fully capture the scale of Kearney's achievement. He is a curiously maligned figure in Irish rugby, and has faced serious pressure for his spot in the last couple of years from Simon Zebo and Jared Payne. There are well-documented reasons for Kearney staving off these respective challenges this spring, but Kearney's position in the team was still subject to some media speculation in February, to which Kearney responded with a smile by saying he saw Jordan Larmour as a winger.
While he will admit that some of his performances in the last couple of years have fallen below par, Kearney has always responded well to adversity - his impressive showing against the All Blacks in Soldier Field was prefaced with a pre-game warning from Joe Schmidt that he "needed a big one today".
In this Grand Slam-winning championship, Kearney has been outstanding, and has improved with every game. And true to that trajectory, he was one of Ireland's best performers in Twickenham.
For a game in which he fetched great heights, it appropriately began in the air. His early challenge on Anthony Watson created a try out of nothing, exquisitely finished by Garry Ringrose.
His defence - bar on Elliot Daly's second try - was immaculate, but it was leadership on the front foot that snaffled attention this afternoon. In the second-half, with Ireland ten minutes deep into a relentless England barrage, Ireland earned a vital reprieve, metres from their own line through a penalty. Kearney earned it, having been rolled out of a ruck by his neck. It was a needles error by England that at least partly owed to Kearney's commitment at the ruck.
Three minutes later, Kearney won another important penalty: bursting through midfield before being eventually illegally felled by Mike Brown. Later, Kearney once again earned a penalty, his ball-carrying exploiting English indiscipline. Conor Murray kicked the penalty, to ultimately put the game beyond England and add another Grand Slam to the shelf.
From there, Ireland closed out the game with Kearney the senior member of the backline featuring 20-year old Jordan Larmour, 23-year-old Garry Ringrose, 21-year-old Jacob Stockdale and 26-year-old Kieran Marmion, a scrum-half playing on the wing.
Kearney's big game temperament is one of the great facts of Irish rugby over the last ten years, and in spite of myriad calls to the contrary, he is fully deserving of his place in the Irish team. So deserving, in fact, that he has carved out his own little niche in Irish rugby history.
Rob Kearney, player of the championship?
— Ger Siggins (@Siggo) March 17, 2018
Rob Kearney was my man of the match, he had one of the best games I've ever seen him play. He bossed the backline
— Manus Lappin (@EmeraldRugby) March 17, 2018
I was worried after the France game that Ireland had not improved in an attacking sense. They've adapted as the tournament has went on and are deserved winners. Hats off to Rob Kearney who has proved the doubters (me) wrong this tournament. He's been excellent.
— Ross Barnett (@rbarnett08) March 17, 2018
