KEEN BLUE 

Hugo Keenan had dreams of playing for Chelsea before Leinster and Ireland star too up rugby

Daire Walsh

HUGO KEENAN is one of the hottest properties in world rugby — but he might easily have been wearing a different shade of blue each weekend.

The 26-year-old’s performances in Leinster blue and Ireland green have established him as one of the top full-backs in the game.

That saw him rewarded with his first central contract — a three-year deal — by the IRFU last month.

But Keenan’s original dream, as a lad growing up, was to play for the Blues — at Stamford Bridge.

He played underage soccer for Mount Merrion Youths in South Dublin before, ultimately, he was gripped by the oval ball game.

Among those to play alongside him during this period were Lorcan Tucker and Kim Garth.

Both of these players went on to become international cricket stars with Ireland. Garth — who was Keenan’s midfield partner in mixed groups at Mount Merrion — subsequently switched allegiance and debuted for Australia in December.

CHELSEA DREAMS

The idea of making a career in football was certainly appealing to Keenan, but he is not convinced it was any more than a pipe dream.

He said: “I would have loved it. Whether it was realistic? I don’t think so, but I definitely would have dreamt of playing for Chelsea.

“I had a good crack at football and it was always my first love.

“A lot of my best mates from school are still playing for the local side, so I go down and watch the games on a Friday night.”

Keenan is an avid supporter of the Blues and it has been a chaotic season for the Londoners.

A staggering £555.5million was spent on players across summer and winter transfer windows.

A former Leinster colleague of Keenan’s recently joined the Chelsea backroom team and he has been busy pestering him for information.

Keenan added: “It’s a bit of a mad old place at the moment with everything going on and going mad in the transfer windows.

“My old physio from Leinster, Fearghal Kerin, has just moved over to Chelsea as they’ve had a bit of an injury crisis as well.

“I’ve been calling him trying to get as much information as I can about the set-up in there. Not that he’s giving me much now!

“It’s always interesting and it would be cool to hear back from Ferg about the set-up.”

LEINSTER SCHOOLS CUP

Keenan won a Leinster Schools Senior Cup title with Blackrock College in 2014 — on a side that also included Caelan Doris, Joey Carbery, Jeremy Loughman and Nick Timoney.

But his rugby career finally started to take shape in his final two years.

Keenan explained: “I was a 16-year-old in fifth year and I hadn’t touched weights. I wasn’t in the senior squad, so I wasn’t getting that hands-on treatment — that only came in my final year.

“Luckily my Dad linked me up. I got a small weights programme for the summer, so that I could come back into fifth year and have a crack.

“That was when I moved to 15, so that was probably a big shaping of my career.”