'I'm back now, thank God' - Rónan Kelleher ready to make up for lost time

A couple of injuries cost the Leinster man some big opportunities in green.

PLEASE RELEASE ME: Rónan Kelleher, right, and Josh van der Flier during a Leinster Rugby squad training session at Old Belvedere RFC in Dublin. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Some players will pinpoint a first tackle, first carry or first catch after injury as the point where they finally flush all that pain, frustration and concern from the system. Rónan Kelleher’s lightbulb moment came long before the first whistle. His dawned as he drove into the grounds of the RDS last Saturday for Leinster’s URC meeting with Glasgow.

“I was like, 'grand, I'm back now, thank God'.” His previous appearance had only been two months before. Not exactly an eternity in linear terms but his first pair of appearances this season, against Zebre and Benetton in September, had themselves come on the back of a longer absence, courtesy of a shoulder issue that had cost him a summer in New Zealand.