Relaxed Hugo Keenan building towards Rugby World Cup in France

The Irish squad are enjoying their final “down week” before preparations for the World Cup crank up with next week’s opening warm-up game against Italy at the Aviva Stadium on August 5th. For those who make the tournament cut, it will be the first of a minimum 10 weeks together, rising to a potential 13 weeks, depending on how far Ireland advance in France.

Insomuch as this is a down week, the players still have to fulfil their individual training programmes, which are monitored by the Global Positioning System trackers which they will return to the IRFU’s sports scientist Matthew Hamilton next Monday.

Some went abroad, but Hugo Keenan stayed at home, before visiting his grandmother in Wexford this weekend. While this afforded him some head space and a few rounds of golf, Keenan house shares with Rónan Kelleher and Caelan Doris, although they draw the line on overdosing on rugby videos in their spare time.

Reviewing training

“The lads are good craic, we get on well,” says Keenan. “It’s not like rugby is dominating the chat at all. We sometimes do, when you get home. We might be reviewing training and you are on your iPads or laptops or whatever. But it’s good to be in that sort of environment with other high-profile rugby lads and to learn off habits that they have.”

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He also believes this has also been beneficial for him.

“I’m a bit young to move in with the missus. And if I was living with my mates from school I think that they would be out on the jar a bit more and it wouldn’t be as professional a set-up. I’m happy with how it is and we’re in an estate with a good few other lads,” adds Keenan, revealing that Robbie Henshaw, Adam and Dan Leavy, Ciarán Frawley, Mick Milne, Will Connors and Jimmy O’Brien are all neighbours, as was Vakh Abdaladze until his recent move to Brive. It’s a big estate, just beside UCD so I’m probably giving you too much away,” says Keenan. “It’s nice. It’s very social. Yeah, you’re never alone really.”

It’s just as well they all get along so.

Still, with a camp in Portugal between the upcoming Italy and England games, and a week in Biarritz for the Samoa match, coupled with the World Cup itself, the squad will spend all bar two of the next 10 to 13 weeks abroad.

“The closest I suppose to it was the [2016] Under-20s [World Cup] in Manchester or the blocks during Covid when we were in camp pretty much 24-7 for the November internationals and then the Six Nations. They wouldn’t be too dissimilar but certainly going abroad for a long amount of time is going to be a new experience but it’s exciting. Where else would you want to be?”

Reviewing trends

Irish teams have consistently shown an ability to hit the ground running and Keenan likens the 15-a-side training sessions as akin to games.

“We have to constantly improve and add bits and pieces to our game as a collective and individually. The opposition teams we’re coming up against are going to be scouting you, they’re going to be looking at trends and they’re going to be getting better. That’s the nature of having so much time to prep. Teams will never have had that chance to be together for so long. They’re going to get better naturally and it’s just up to us to improve ourselves and try to improve more than the others,” he says

One of the first names on the team sheet, all being well, Keenan will go to his first World Cup, having watched some of the 2011 tournament in New Zealand early in the morning on a retreat in Wexford while in fourth year at Blackrock. He attended Ireland’s quarter-final defeat by Argentina in Cardiff four weeks later as part of a family weekend away.

The last World Cup, prior to which he’d only started four games for Leinster, afforded him his first real run in the team, since when he’s become a classy and dependable fixture in the side for both province and country.

“I was just sort of getting my chance with Leinster when the lads were away at the World Cup. I would have bitten your hand off to be in this squad four years later.”

• Hugo Keenan is an ambassador for Inishella, BWG Foods’ new Bord Bia-approved Irish meat brand.