Hugo Keenan praises Ireland U2O’s mentality following important win in difficult circumstances
Senior international full-back Hugo Keenan has paid tribute to the Ireland U20s for the way they performed under incredibly difficult circumstances against Fiji at the World Championship in South Africa on Tuesday.
In addition to the sad news that recently graduated St Michael’s College students Andrew O’Donnell and Max Wall had died in separate incidents on the Greek island of Ios last weekend, it was confirmed on Monday that Munster elite performance officer Greig Oliver had also passed away following a paragliding accident in Cape Town.
A former Scottish international, Oliver was in South Africa to support his son Jack, who had featured off the bench for Ireland in their impressive 30-10 pool stage win over Australia last Thursday and was initially listed amongst the replacements for their clash with the Fijians at the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch.
In his absence, an Irish team that included three former St Michael’s students in its starting line-up recorded a 47-27 bonus point triumph to set-up a semi-final encounter against host nation South Africa in Athlone Stadium this Sunday.
“It was obviously very, very sad what happened to them, but to muster up the strength and courage to go out and put in a performance like that and win for Greig was brilliant. It is obviously very tough on them, but they represented themselves well. It was great to see,” Keenan remarked.
“I know a few of the lads [in the Ireland senior squad] were very close to him, especially the scrum halves and a few of the Limerick lads.
“I haven’t seen them since, but from their social media posts it seems like they were very close to him and that he did a lot for them. He was with the U20s before my time as well. It was awfully sad.”
While it will understandably be difficult for Richie Murphy’s charges to concentrate fully on their showdown with the Baby Boks this weekend, they do find themselves just 80 minutes away from becoming just the second Irish team to reach a World Rugby U20 Championship decider.
Keenan was part of the crop that made a breakthrough under Nigel Carolan in 2016 and he has fond memories of that particular tournament in Manchester. Although it ended in a comprehensive defeat to England, Keenan is one of seven players from that squad who has gone on to be capped at senior level by Ireland.
“I really enjoyed that tournament in Manchester. We probably went in as huge underdogs and it was a bit of a surprise, but we had a few great scalps along the way. Wales. who were Grand Slam champions, the Baby Blacks [New Zealand]. That was great for building connections through your career.
“There are a whole list of lads in the [senior] squad now who were on that team. [Andrew] Porter, James [Ryan], Jimmy [O’Brien], [Jacob] Stockdale. Plenty to bring that continuation.
“I’m sure in the next World Cup it will be the same, a new crop of U20s lads can come through. South Africa in the semi-final, that will be a tough one for them, but it’s exciting and hopefully they can go one better than we did.”
Having also lined out for Ireland at the World Cup Sevens in 2018, Keenan will now be looking to complete the full list of international tournaments with Andy Farrell’s senior outfit at the Rugby World Cup in France this coming autumn.
Speaking at Wilson Hartnell in Dublin yesterday – where he was announced as a new Irish brand ambassador for Optimum Nutrition – Keenan explained Ireland’s 42-strong summer training squad are currently on a down week after a fortnight of intense work at the IRFU’s High Performance Centre, but will soon be ramping things up ahead of their warm-up games against Italy, England and Samoa in August.
“Sometimes it’s nice getting into pre-season and there’s not the worry of the games and you’re just trying to get yourself right, back up to speed and body back up to speed. It’s nice to get a bit of downtime this week.
“I’m still training away a bit and we come back Sunday. I went to Porto with the girlfriend for three nights, so it was nice and chilled,” Keenan added.