Keenan's rule of thumb: better to be inside the white line than outside

Hugo Keenan’s been like a kid on Christmas in camp recently.

Hugo Keenan poses for a portrait after an Ireland rugby media conference. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

By diving over in the north-eastern corner of the Melbourne Cricket Ground last year to seal a Lions series win, Hugo Keenan wrote himself into rugby folklore and has a memory that will last a lifetime. But the brilliant fullback is craving more.

“It’s sort of cool looking back on it, but there's no point dwelling on it now,” the articulate and humble Leinster fullback said in Sydney.

“There's more memories to be made, and it's a big challenge for us again this week and over the next few weeks, and it's an exciting new sort of tournament and a new sort of quest.” 

Good luck trying to top that five-pointer in Melbourne 11 months ago.

But, for now, Keenan is simply happy being back in the Irish strip after a wretched run of misfortune that has seen the fullback miss Ireland’s past two campaigns due to separate injuries.

A hip issue saw him miss the November Tests last year, while the 30-year-old fractured his thumb on a January training camp in Portugal that ruled him out of the Six Nations.

So, even for a tour pro, Keenan’s been like a kid on Christmas in camp recently, especially given when he arrived in Sydney almost 12 months ago he was sick as a dog and lost six kilograms on the eve of the Lions three-Test series against the Wallabies.

 

It makes his match-winner in front of more than 90,000 even more remarkable.

“I'm itching to get back into the green jersey,” he said. “There's nothing like representing your country. It was something I've always dreamed of. I've probably said it to you before, that I never thought I'd get to do it once.

“I’ve 46 (caps) now, and when you're injured, it's not a big injury, but when you're out of the game for six months and then you miss another Six Nations, and you're out of the team for a while, you do have your doubts.

“You do wonder, is there going to be another chance? And you never know what's sort of around the corner for you. So it's definitely made me more hungry to get back into the squad and (I'm) buzzing just to hopefully get an opportunity to play and wear that green jersey again.” 

Keenan admitted he didn’t think he’d spend as long as he did on the sidelines earlier in the year, which made the thumb injury all the more frustrating.

“I'd never really dislocated something, and sometimes you can just pop it back in. But then when the doc started playing around with it, you can tell. I've had enough broken bones that I can tell when something's broken,” he said.

“Generally, the rule of thumb for a broken bone is six weeks to heal and Six Nations is seven weeks and you're always thinking, ‘Oh, I can scrape a week or two off that.’ But there's no cheating mother nature at the same time.

“Having been out for a good while with the hip and whatnot there was probably no point in rushing me back – just getting me right.” 

Keenan then watched through gritted teeth as Ireland’s Six Nations campaign ultimately blew up from the outset following their 36-14 defeat in France.

“It was definitely tougher watching that France game though, when you're losing and when it's a big defeat, and you feel like you can help the lads and help the group. That's when I found the toughest,” he said.

Naturally the classy fullback found the wins over England and Scotland easier to watch and Keenan said he was impressed by the group’s progress through the Six Nations.

“It was easier watching when the group's going well. I loved being over in Twickenham for that England game. That was class. I loved seeing that Scotland performance and finishing well and getting a Triple Crown,” he said.

“Watching the trajectory of the group was cool to see. I was obviously involved at the start for the first week and was sort of keeping my finger in the group here and there.

“I was brought in after the England game, and was in the Aviva for one of the open sessions as well, and did a little bit of rehab with the physio Emma in here as well. I very much enjoyed seeing the success of it, but I would have rather been out there as well.” 

Should Keenan reclaim the No.15 jersey as expected, he is set to go head-to-head with Max Jorgensen, the electric 21-year-old Wallaby, who last year showed exactly what he could do against the Lions by scoring tries in Brisbane and Sydney.

But his tactical kicking and aerial prowess could give Ireland an edge in the two crunch areas.

Ireland assistant coach Simon Easterby expected the clash to be tight on the scoreboard and on the field, believing the high scoring club fixtures around the world wouldn’t necessarily transfer to the international game.

“I think it's quite exciting though,” he admitted.

“The game has broken up a bit hasn't it in the last 12-18 months, and there's obviously been some high scoring games in domestic competitions, but Test matches on the whole, they seem to be still pretty tight and there's less space,” he said.

After slow starts to kick off their past two campaigns, Easterby said Ireland were desperate to turn things around and anticipated the clash against Australia to be another ding-dong battle.

“This is a proper Test match, playing away from home on the back of what we built through the Six Nations pretty well; a good performance against Scotland, it wasn't perfect but it's important that we don't take a step back and we keep pushing forward and keep getting better,” he said.

“I'd like to think in the way they've trained in the last week, we're seeing a lot of that stuff come through from the Six Nations and hopefully we'll see that on the weekend in the performance.” 

Easterby confirmed Paul O’Connell’s comments in recent days that Andy Farrell had a full squad to pick from.