Ian Keatley: ‘Head over heart decision has me where I am now’
But it was a well planned move by the now Munster and Irish outhalf. He could see no bright future for him in Leinster after a couple of years in their academy, despite playing for Ireland U18s and U20s and featuring in a rare U20 Grand Slam.
“Leinster were talking about giving me a contract based on Felipe Contepomi whenever he retired but then they also brought in Isa Nacewa,” he said. “You also had Johnny Sexton in the mix, so I figured if Felipe didn’t leave that I would be left out on a limb, in the wilderness.
“I was working with Eric Elwood and Dan McFarland in the Irish U20s and they asked me whether I’d like to join Connacht on a full contract as against Leinster offering me another year with the academy.
“It was a very tough choice in one sense in that obviously Leinster was my home province, I’d lived there for 20 years, all my family and friends were there. Yet I wanted to have a long rugby career and I thought that going to Connacht would get me the game time I needed at that level, even though I knew myself we wouldn’t be winning week in and week out.
“But I also knew I was going down to join a group of very talented lads who were willing to work hard and it just gave me a chance to get regular game time at that level. Okay, I wasn’t playing with the super star players like Felipe or Brian O’Driscoll, but what you did have was real tough lads prepared to fight for each other.
“They still have that. What people don’t realise is Connacht train just as hard as any other team. They’re very hard workers and are an up-and-coming team and when I was there I felt I was part of that movement to try to make Connacht a special team and a special place.”
Just as he gave due consideration to go west, he thought long and hard about travelling down to Limerick knowing he would have to start all over again to claim a regular start.
“I knew Paul Warwick was moving on and that I would be in and around second or third choice. But I wasn’t going to make up the numbers and Munster made no bones about it. They said ROG was number one and wanted me to push him. I also thought that ROG was 33-ish at the time and I figured he wouldn’t be around forever. So it was an opportunity to sit behind a guy like him and learn from him.
“I still wanted to overtake him but I was also happy to learn, sit back, improve my game and then in my second year I was actually pushing him. They kept him for the big games and he delivered for them in the big games but it was great for me knowing I was pushing him by upping my game.”
Keatley will be going back up the road to Galway this weekend as Munster desperately battle to get back into the top two of the Pro12. With JJ Hanrahan awaiting results from a scan yesterday Keatley will be in the 10 spot for the foreseeable future. And the next four weeks are crucial, he says.
“We have put ourselves in a good position to get some silverware. We’re in one semi-final, we can’t predict what might happen in the next couple of weeks but we have put ourselves in a great position,” he said.
He sees much in this Munster squad that he saw in Connacht when he arrived there a few years back.
“We’re not superstars, we work very hard for each other and acknowledge each other for that work ethic and the physicality we put into each game and I think that’s going to be the making and breaking of us this year.”
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