Kearney: Ireland team take responsibility

Kearney was unable to prevent his side from falling to a 23-16 defeat as Wales brought Ireland's ten-game winning streak to an end.

The full-back will be hoping to avoid a similar slip in form experienced by Leinster, who have won just one of their last four league games and dropped to fifth place in the GUINNESS PRO12 after their defeat to Scarlets in Round 17.

Kearney admits Ireland were far from their best in Saturday's game but suggests the team will not dwell on the defeat for too long.

"You could say that right across the board, for the majority of the team, every single player will probably pick a few instances or moments where they could have contributed a bit better to the team," he said.

"I don't think you can particularly highlight key players. We are in this as a team.

"We were beaten away to Wales, beaten by a very, very strong team. Confidence-wise, we are disappointed we didn't fulfill our potential and we didn't play to our potential on the day but by no means will our confidence be affected by that."

And Kearney maintained the mood in the Ireland camp is positive ahead of a trip to BT Murrayfield to face Scotland on Saturday.

"There's no pessimism within the squad. I think when you lose games and you under-perform, you're going to get criticism and some of that is probably warranted," he added.

"So I'm not surprised at the criticism and the pessimism, we're fully aware of moods within our own camp. The main thing for us is that there's no pessimism within the team room."

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