Ronan Kelleher brings blue steel to Irish front row

Caelan Doris, Peter O’Mahony and Ronan Kelleher. Picture: INPHO/Ryan Bailey

Ronan Kelleher is being unduly modest when he suggests he is happy to be “lumped in with” his Ireland front-row team-mates as the praise keeps coming their way.

The hooker has been an integral part of the partnership with tighthead prop Tadhg Furlong and reconverted loosehead Andrew Porter that acted as something of a lightning rod for the way Ireland have shifted through the gears under Andy Farrell in the last 10 months.

Now widely recognised as the most dynamic front row in world rugby, the reputation of the all-Leinster trio has been forged as much on their ability to mix it in open play, with the footwork and soft hands of centres and the carrying power and speed of back-rowers that has helped transform the national side into a team capable of attacking from a variety of angles to keep defenders constantly on their toes.

Their play has contributed to the eight-Test winning streak that began midway through last year’s Six Nations and in November to defeating the All Blacks at Aviva Stadium.

Now Kelleher and co face their latest challenge, back to high-intensity, high stakes rugby of the championship and a campaign opener at home to Wales this Saturday.

Kelleher, 24, was in bullish mood this week for both the competition to come and the happy place in which the front row finds itself when he spoke to media from Ireland’s pre-championship warm-weather training camp in Portugal.

“I’m really looking forward to it. Really looking forward to hitting the ground running this weekend. We as a group feel we have a real opportunity to win this thing, so it’s about putting our best foot forward against Wales.”

Of the front-row plaudits, Kelleher added: “It has been great. It’s not just the three of us, it’s everyone in the squad. You look across the competition for places, it’s pretty impressive at the minute. Everyone is champing at the bit in training, especially at scrum time, so it has been great. It’s nice to get the recognition that the likes of Tadhg and Ports are getting, so it’s great to be lumped in with them.”

Porter’s switch to the loosehead side of the scrum has been a particular game-changer for Ireland, albeit breaking up a formidable tag-team on the tighthead with Furlong but giving Farrell a trio with an all-court game that can play to Ireland’s strengths.

“It’s just a credit to him how seamless he has made it look,” the hooker said. “It is incredibly difficult to switch over. For others, it’s learning a new position but for him, he obviously played there when he was younger in UCD and in school so he had some background there, but just how effortless he has made the switch seem has been very impressive.

“Then obviously to have himself and Tadhg on the pitch has been of incredible benefit to the whole side, just the energy and fitness he brings as a loosehead prop.”

Kelleher explained the process he witnessed from his position ‘next door’ as Porter re-learned the loosehead ropes at Leinster during last summer’s pre-season.

“It would mainly be on how he feels and he’d be communicating with all the other looseheads in Leinster, chatting to Cian (Healy), Ed Byrne, Peter Dooley. Not that he needed much help but they were all giving him little tips I suppose, little cues.

“For me, it was really just getting the feel with him again, getting comfortable with him on the loosehead side. It was fairly seamless and by the time I was back scrummaging with him, he had done a great job flipping back.

“A lot of it comes down to his own work reviewing scrum sessions and looking back at different ways, comparing what he’s done with other hookers and then telling me what makes him feel good, then little tweaks along the way to make the whole thing better.”

The whole thing is to make the whole front-row more cohesive and together. We’re still building, we haven’t cracked it yet, we’re still building that cohesion and trying to gel together.”

The interactions between props and hooker in the loose have come more organically, Kelleher explained.

“A lot of it just seems to happen quite naturally. When we get out of the scrums at training, we would be the forwards who are closes together. So a lot of it is from little chats there, getting into position, it comes quite naturally.

“And then of course with all that skill work, we would be working together on that. So even when we’re on scrum detail, we would be doing little three on threes, we’re always together all of the time. It’s been great learning for me and all the other boys, learning off Tadhg and Cian. And that part is more enjoyable as well.”

What should also be more enjoyable for Kelleher now is the recently announced scrum trial to introduce a “brake foot” at engagement with the intention of alleviating pressure on necks.

“Often, in recent years, there would be a lot of weight on binds and that leads to pre-engagements and scrums going down,” he explained. “So it’s about preventative measures to protect the hookers’ and tightheads’ necks. Now that weight will not be on your head, but on your front foot, so there should still be a gap to fire into as a front row.

“That’s the idea behind it… it got pretty bad there for a while. I suppose at the time it was just part of the job but now I’m glad they’re putting in measures to try and fix it now.”