Rónan Kelleher: 'We’re looking forward to getting back to work on Monday and trying to fix a lot of the wrongs'

TAKING IT ALL IN: Ronan Kelleher applaud the fans after the game in Croke Park. Pic: ©INPHO/Ben Brady

It was Eddie Jones who foisted the phrase ‘finishers’ on us when he was over England. This was in 2017, long before it all turned sour between the controversial Wallaby and the RFU blazers.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, who was supposedly part of a high-performance coaching WhatsApp group with Jones and coaches from the NFL and NBA, adopted it last year but the phrase has drawn ire from the off in rugby, a sport that is no stranger to cringing terminology.

Clive Woodward was among those to pour scorn. One of the first changes Steve Borthwick made when taking over England after Jones’ departure was to scrap the term and revert to listing them again as simply ‘replacements’.

If the ‘finishers’ fad was the kind of move that smacked of needless corporate speak then the concept supporting it isn’t without basis. Finishing a game of rugby at the elite level is an art in itself, not least with eight changes allowed on either side. There’s a lot of moving parts.

No player wants to be wedded to the second wave but some find themselves bracketed that way anyway. Rónan Kelleher, a man who would nail a starting berth on most rosters, is one of those for both club and country thanks to Dan Sheehan.

Kelleher was among the replacements when Ireland lost to New Zealand at last year’s World Cup. He was drafted in for the loss to England in Twickenham at this year’s Six Nations, at the end of last year’s Champions Cup loss in Dublin, and for Leinster’s narrow wins against La Rochelle (in December) and the Saints on Saturday.

Even that small sample size shows how tricky it can be to close out games. The margins are tiny and not always clear. That they managed it against Northampton in this Champions Cup semi-final in Croke Park, having led comfortably with an hour played, was no small thing.

“It was very difficult,” said Kelleher. “It was a really tough game. They are a quality, quality side and they really showed it throughout the whole 80 minutes. It was very difficult to defend against them, particularly in that last 20 minutes.” 

Northampton deserve the plaudits for the way they injected life into a dying game. Phil Dowson’s side left rueing a sloppy first-half and feeling that a more complete display on the night could have produced a sensational and famous victory.

The sense of ‘what if’ was captured at the final whistle when Saints centre Fraser Dingwall stood on the halfway line for what felt like an eternity with his hands clasped behind his back and a look of utter dejection on his face. They could have had this one. He knew.

Leinster knew it too.

“It was a mix of everything,” said Kelleher of the team’s emotions. “Happy to get over the line, nervy ending, but I suppose we kinda parked it and enjoyed the occasion because we hadn’t really been able to soak much of it in. You’re playing at Croke Park.

“It’s obviously a massive occasion for so much of this group who would have grown up playing Gaelic football. It was just incredible. I didn’t really read too much into it at the end, so we will probably get our learnings on Monday and try to kick on.” 

Leo Cullen has been questioned in the past for the timing of his substitutions with the suggestion being that they tended to happen too late. Not this time. This time Leinster made their first three as early as the 54th minute.

Kelleher was one of them. The brief was familiar: bring an energy and an enthusiasm to the pitch and see it all home. There were a couple of tactical messages sent on with them, and which Kelleher felt they managed to bed in, but Northampton kept on keeping on.

Another traumatic loss, one that would have been shipped on the back of the same 17-point lead they held across the Liffey against La Rochelle last May, was very nearly coughed up again. Talk inevitably turned to those clichéd ‘learnings’.

“To be honest, I’m sure there’s loads. Off the top of my head, I suppose just defensively, as I said, just getting those dead-stops is the big one, setting in our defensive line and getting ready to go again.

“But it’s great for us now that happened. Loads of learnings are going to come from that game. We’re looking forward to getting back to work on Monday and trying to fix a lot of the wrongs.” 

Kelleher is a West Bromwich Albion fan courtesy of his dad’s long-held allegiances but he goes to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium now as part of a Leinster side that will have serious questions to answer should the final be a going concern entering the last quarter.

They badly need to finish this one.