Ireland exposure will improve Keatley, says boss

Joe Schmidt believes he can help make Ian Keatley a better player by bringing the Munster fly-half into the Ireland squad for next month’s Guinness Series.

Fresh from his European heroics last weekend, when he kicked the winning drop goal against Sale Sharks, Keatley was included in Schmidt’s 37-man squad alongside fellow fly-halves Johnny Sexton and Ian Madigan, with Ulster’s Paddy Jackson missing out.

That represents a reversal in fortunes for Keatley, 27, overlooked by Schmidt during the former Leinster coach’s first season at the Ireland helm.

Schmidt yesterday explained Jackson, 22, was “still very much on our radar” but was undercooked to face South Africa in two weeks having played only one full game this season. His best preparation for the 2015 Six Nations, the head coach reasoned, was to keep racking up the minutes for Ulster.

“The best springboard for someone like Ian Keatley, who hasn’t been in our camp before, apart from mini-camps, is to demonstrate a level of performance and that he has progressed,” Schmidt said.

“Now let’s find out a little bit more about Ian in a match squad or at least in a wider squad — how does he train with us, what are the elements of the game we’ve asked him to work on.”

Keatley’s inclusion at this juncture, the New Zealander said, was the latest step in the player’s journey towards the Test arena rather than a knee-jerk reaction to one strong performance.

“Sometimes it’s a performance that happens that you say ‘well, this guy is needed in the environment’ but for us, it’s probably been plotting the path.

“He did really well in Toulon last year (in Munster’s Heineken Cup semi-final loss last May) and that almost got him on the tour (to Argentina). We went with Ian Madigan because at that stage it was a very tight timeframe, the end of the season and the tour were one after the other. And Ian Madigan had played well, plus he gives versatility, which is a strength.

“So Ian’s (Keatley) been in our thinking and went very well in (Romania) and the feedback from the (Emerging Ireland) coaching staff is he led by example. This season, I think he has done really well. They were a few hiccups early in the season, against Edinburgh, the last kick, and a couple of kicks he missed early in the game. Those are things that we want to get him in camp and have a look at what he’s doing and try to help with that aspect of his game rather than say ‘that aspect’s not good enough, let’s leave it’ and he doesn’t get selected. That’s part of the opportunity. It’s not just getting onto the pitch, it’s us getting to know him a little bit more and trying to help in some of the areas we think he probably needs to progress a little bit.”

Keatley’s performance last Saturday’s gave Schmidt plenty of food for thought. “I thought in the lead-up to Conor Murray scoring at the weekend he took the ball square into two defenders and really fought his way forward. There are little snippets he did pretty impressively. He’ll know himself when he analyses his own game that he kicked well out of hand but then there was the one when he got it and kicked it out on the full, when they had to come back, and that was a point where Sale got three points.”