'I’m not far off': Ronan Kelleher banked positives from mixed Lions experience

Ronan Kelleher: Lions was a great experience. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Ronan Kelleher wouldn’t be the only Lion to hold mixed feelings about the summer’s tour to South Africa.

Being called up to the party remains a career highlight and, while losing the Test series isn’t exactly anything new for the finest players from these islands, the manner in which Warren Gatland’s side fell short of the Springboks has elicited plenty of regrets.

Some have even made it to print.

Rightly or wrongly, more again will still be coming to terms even now with what they feel was a lack of merited game time. Kelleher? He didn’t feature at all and yet just getting the call represents a major step forward for the 23-year old.

Overlooked for the initial squad, the Leinster hooker had a spell at it’s pre-tour training base in Jersey before returning to Dublin, scoring four tries for Ireland against the USA and putting in another shift against Japan.

It was then that Gatland summoned him to South Africa as cover. The Lions had just one more warm-up game, against the Stormers, to play by the time he touched down in Cape Town so meaningful action was always going to be a stretch.

Quite the emotional roller coaster, really, though the man himself seems to be a glass-half-full type of guy.

“Pretty positive about it, to be honest. It was a great experience and great to get to know the lads and all the coaches. Obviously slightly disappointed not to get a bit of a run or anything, but I can’t be too disappointed with it.

“To go from nowhere, not in the squad, to being brought out to train alongside them is still a really positive experience. Also, the lads are great and I took a lot of learnings from it.

“Ultimately it also drove in me (the feeling) that I’m not far off. I felt it was a pretty competitive bunch as well. That was one of the big takeaways from it. I felt confident out there.”

That he didn’t get on the park ultimately came down to the reality that the men ahead of him had more experience, more credit in the bank, when it came to the biggest of days. Coming in late left him with no time to make up that ground.

Luke Cowan-Dickie and Ken Owens shared the hooker duties over the three Tests, the pair of them bringing 62 years and 114 appearances for their countries to the table. Jamie George, a 59-Test, vet was, like Kelleher, unused in the series itself.

The priority now for Kelleher is that he finally nails down that No.2 green jersey. Though he started both games for Andy Farrell’s side over the summer, he was a replacement for four of the Six Nations ties, Italy being his only time to take the first whistle.

In all, eight of his 13 appearances for his country have come via the bench.

Rob Herring has been his chief rival for the position in this post-Rory Best era but added to that now, and Dave Heffernan’s candidacy, is Leinster teammate Dan Sheehan who has been named in a senior Ireland squad for the first time.

If Kelleher is the older statesmen between those two, then it isn’t by much. Less than eight months Sheehan’s senior, he has played 28 times for the province compared to his fellow 23-year old’s 17, but both have shown a productive eye for the try line already.

The emergence of Sheehan as another one-to-watch can only be good for club and country and Kelleher himself sounds relaxed about the extra competition while acknowledging the need to keep pushing new boundaries himself.

Robin McBryde has been a regular sounding board this last while given the Welshman’s dual role as forwards coach with Leinster and the Lions. Now it’s over to Paul O’Connell and John Fogarty to let Kelleher know where exactly he can make the most gains.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but just consistency again, just make sure that we get the full 80-minute performance really. It’s obviously an area that I’ve worked on in terms of like being physical, of being abrasive on the pitch.

“Also, kinda make sure that you don’t go into your shadow. But yeah, obviously it’s something that I’ve been working on in Leinster, I suppose that physical aspect of the game really was what I got.”