In a previous rugby life, a teenage Jack Kelly trained with Joe Schmidt’s Ireland senior team ahead of the 2016 November Test series, he captained Ireland in the 2017 Under-20 Six Nations Championship, played in the Junior World Cup in Georgia that summer and in 2018 led Leinster A to a first Celtic Cup success.
An elegant fullback, the former St Michael’s College pupil seemed well set in terms of his rugby career, which also included playing All-Ireland League Division 1A rugby for Dublin University in his first year out of school.
Injury intervened, two shoulder issues and ankle surgery took a sizeable chunk out of his season as Irish 20s captain. Promoted from the sub strata, he signed a two-and-a-half-year academy contract with Leinster. He made his senior debut against the Ospreys (2018), his only senior appearance, but captained the A side.
Anthony Eddy asked Leinster to release Kelly to the Ireland Sevens programme where he quickly excelled, part of the training group that helped prepare the squad that travelled and won the Hong Kong qualifier (2019) that earned them a place on the World Series circuit.
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He made his debut at the London Sevens in 2019 and was in the squad that initially failed in their bid to earn a place at the Tokyo Olympics through the European qualifier. They would atone memorably in the Olympic Repechage tournament in Monaco the following summer.
Kelly returned to pre-season training with Leinster, who had extended his contract until Christmas because of his injury ravaged first season. Leo Cullen called him in and told him that there wasn’t a place for him in the senior squad.
“It was disappointing not to get kept on, but I was lucky to be able to step straight into another set-up with great aspirations and great lads. I have loved every minute of it since,” Kelly explained, pointing out that he left Leinster on a Friday and started with the Ireland Sevens on the Monday.
A fullback in 15s, he has lost none of his footwork or speed but in Sevens operates as a forward. “Every 15s player that comes into Sevens is the fast guy in 15s and then you come here (Sevens) and realise that you can’t just burn guys; everyone is fast here. You must learn the game, bring different elements.
“We have Terry (Kennedy), Jordan (Conroy) and Chay Mullins who are just incredible speedsters. That role is taken. I turned into one of the big guys which is funny for me. I am now very much more focused on physically imposing myself on a game.”
In the space of a couple of months Kelly (24) experienced both ends of the emotional spectrum, qualifying for Tokyo only for James Topping’s squad to underperform horribly by their own standards at the Olympics.
He said: “We were very disappointed with how we played. A lot of what we took away from it would be managing our emotions. A highlight was winning the repechage tournament in Monaco, playing, and beating France to ultimately become Olympians. It was such a focus of ours for so many years to be the first Irish team to go to the Olympics.
“We had such an emotional high after qualifying that we didn’t pick ourselves up and build again towards the Olympics. Looking back on the South Africa game (in Tokyo) you could tell they had been building towards our game for months whereas we had been building for months towards the Monaco tournament.”
The Irish squad has demonstrated the capacity to absorb lessons. Claiming 10th in their first full season on the World Series – 2019 was curtailed due to Covid – they finished fifth in the campaign just gone including reaching a first ever final in the France Sevens in Toulouse, which also included another milestone in a first victory over South Africa.
Having qualified with a law degree from Trinity, two years ago he accepted a training contract with McCann FitzGerald, who have been very supportive of his rugby endeavours. However, earlier in the summer it looked like Kelly might have to forego his Sevens career to study for his FE-1 exams but a tripartite arrangement between the law firm, Blackhall Place and the IRFU found a resolution in mid-July.
He said: “It did take a bit of work and juggling. The solution we came to was that they (Law Society) have agreed to my time away with the Sevens so long as when I am back home in Dublin, I make up the hours that I have missed, on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. I am more than happy to take that as a compromise if I can keep playing.”
Kelly is currently in Cape Town preparing for the Sevens World Cup. It takes place from Friday to Sunday. Included in the extended squad – it will be whittled down before the tournament – is his younger brother, Ed, who has just turned 21. The first time they played together was in Dubai. “That was a special moment that I really cherish.
“It is not just playing rugby with my brother but also be representing my country alongside him. It was a big moment for the family.” It is a knockout tournament in that there are no pool games and if you lose at any stage, you can’t win the World Cup; just the bowl, the plate or some other nick-nack.
Ireland play Portugal in their opening game. They haven’t looked beyond that, officially. Privately they know that England and potentially a quarter-final opponent while the hosts, South Africa, are further down the trail. The focus is on performance; Tokyo taught them that lesson. Kelly said: “We are good enough to beat anyone.” The challenge next weekend is to prove it.
