Olympic Experience Has Keenan ‘Reenergised’ For Return To Test Arena

Hugo Keenan is feeling ‘reenergised and really motivated’ as he prepares to make his return to 15s international rugby, just over three months on from representing Ireland at the Paris Olympics.

He made the switch back to the Sevens code to fulfil his Olympic ambition, having been part of the Ireland Sevens programme between 2017 and 2019 before his 15s career took off with both Leinster and Ireland.

Despite James Topping’s side falling short in their medal chase, Keenan reckons his time back in the national Sevens set-up has added some more strings to his bow coming back to the full form of the game.

“It has probably been a bit of an easier transition back,” he admitted, speaking from Ireland’s training base in Portugal ahead of next Friday’s Autumn Nations Series opener against New Zealand.

“I’ve obviously been playing the 15s game for the last five or so years, full-on. While I had been out of the game, in terms of Sevens, for a longer period.

“So I had to refresh a lot on the systems and the style of play. While now it sort of feels natural being back playing 15s and enjoying it.

“It’s probably too early to say but I have come back feeling pretty good, reenergised, definitely really motivated for the season ahead. I’d like to think I have picked up things in attack and defence, from the Sevens game and a lot of the Irish Sevens players.

“Hopefully you might have seen a little bit of it over the last four weeks (with Leinster), and hopefully you see more of it over the year to come as well.

“Playing Sevens did a huge, huge amount for me in my development in my younger years in the Academy. I definitely put a lot of my progress down to the Sevens game.

“It was one of the reasons why I wanted to go back to challenge myself again and put myself in unfamiliar circumstances, out of my comfort zone, and to improve my game through that and by playing at that high level in that environment.”

Keenan has played in four of Leinster’s opening six matches in the BKT United Rugby Championship, quickly showing some of the form which saw him become first-choice full-back for both province and country.

A try scorer against Munster at Croke Park, he has got a total of 320 minutes of game-time under his belt so far, with 305 metres run from 40 carries, two linebreaks, 12 tackle breaks, 24 successful tackles from 26 attempts, and 23 attacking ruck arrivals.

The 28-year-old Dubliner was admittedly on the receiving end of some good-natured slagging when his Ireland 15s team-mates saw him with the Sevens side back in June when both squads were training at the IRFU High Performance Centre.

His absence from the summer tour to South Africa coincided with Jamie Osborne’s first two Test appearances, and the Naas native (22) repaid Andy Farrell’s faith in him with a couple of assured displays in the full-back position.

More known as a centre, Osborne has shown his ability in the back-field, beginning the season with starts in the number 15 jersey against Edinburgh and the Dragons, before shifting to inside centre for his last three games. Keenan has no doubt that the competition for places will drive standards even higher.

“Jamie’s been brilliant. I think he has been knocking on the door for a while and there is just a lot of competition there.

“We’d seen what he can do and how well he can play in the blue jersey with Leinster, and it was cool to see him in that toughest of environments (in South Africa) and going so well, and in a position he hadn’t too much experience with which is a testament to him.

“Yeah, it is good to get a bit of competition and hopefully push each other along.”

A debutant against Italy four years ago, Keenan could win his 40th cap against New Zealand on Friday. He has mostly positive memories of playing the All Blacks, including the home win in November 2021, and the 2022 summer tour victories in Dunedin and Wellington.

However, the teams’ most recent meeting came at the Rugby World Cup last year where New Zealand won 28-24 to hand Ireland the most painful of quarter-final exits. Approaching the rematch, Keenan has shrugged off talk of it being a revenge mission.

“We are still hurting a bit from the World Cup, it was obviously a hugely disappointing loss. But we have to view it as a fresh series, back at home, the excitement around playing four brilliant sides.

“A lot of things have changed since then through playing squads and coaching staff as well. It’s not a new cycle either but, no, I don’t think we’ll be looking at it as a revenge game.

“It’s a game against one of the top nations in the world, and historically probably the best team in the world.”

Since Ireland made history that famous day at Chicago’s Soldier Field in November 2016, 11 points has been their biggest winning margin in this fixture. They won by seven and nine respectively when they last hosted the All Blacks in 2018 and 2021.

Last year’s World Cup showdown was ultimately decided by a long-range Jordie Barrett penalty, with the same player holding up Rónan Kelleher to deny him a try, and New Zealand’s defence surviving a late Irish onslaught through 37 phases.

Looking back on that game, Keenan commented: “Yeah, it is nearly as simple as the bounce of a ball, isn’t it? That’s why these games are so exciting, that’s why Test rugby is so brilliant at the moment and why it is so competitive, so many teams can beat each other.

“That’s also why it made it so tough of a loss that day, that it could have gone either way…statistically we might have won a few battles but that is why rugby is so entertaining, why everybody loves it so much.

“It can often come down to that bounce a ball, a decision, an injury, and so it could have been a number of things.”