Patience required but Rónan Kelleher's path to Ireland's front row is clear

HOOKED: Rónan Kelleher played Gaelic football, tennis and basketball and also played in different positions in rugby, lending a dynamism that he brings to the position of hooker. Picture: Dan Sheridan

Nature or nurture. It’s a debate so old it may even predate Campbell-Ward and it is every bit as intractable.

Rónan Kelleher clearly has sport in the blood. His father Tim was a hurler in a bygone age back in Cork and elder brother Cian is part of the same Leinster dressing-room. That’s a decent head start but environment has watered these seeds to huge effect.