If he is selected to face Gloucester in Pool A of the Heineken Champions Cup at Kingsholm on Saturday (kick-off 1pm), Hugo Keenan will find himself reaching a significant milestone in his Leinster career.
After first making his professional debut for the province against Zebre back in November 2016, Keenan is in line to pick up his 50th cap as a Blues player in the southwest of England.
Of his 49 appearances to date, 44 have been from 2019 onwards, with Keenan’s main focus before that being on the Sevens circuit with Ireland. While he doesn’t use that as a reason for him having to wait until the age of 26 to reach a half century with Leinster, it is a box he will be pleased to tick off nonetheless.
“Delighted to get the chance to hopefully reach 50. I don’t think Sevens to be honest really slowed me down. I was just a bit of a slow burner. I can’t blame that. I still remember when Peter Smyth [his former Blackrock College coach] told my Dad he thought I was going to get 50 caps for Leinster and I never believed him, to be honest,” Keenan said.
“It will be a special one. It’s not quite 100 or anything like that, which a lot of lads have achieved, but it’s still a proud accomplishment for me and my family. For everyone who has helped me get there. It would be a good game to get it in as well.”
Whereas he had managed to remain largely injury-free before the current campaign, abdominal and knee problems saw Keenan missing out on the opening seven games that Leinster played in this season’s United Rugby Championship.
However, he recovered in time to feature for Ireland in their autumn international win over South Africa on November 5th and he also made the cut for a narrow triumph against Australia a fortnight later. He had initially hoped to get a game or two in with Leinster before facing the Springboks, but it instead proved to be his first competitive game since last May’s Champions Cup final defeat by La Rochelle.
“It was a tough task to get up to speed quickly, but I had a lot of training sessions. A bit of time in camp and a small bit here with Leinster to get ready. South Africa in the Aviva was a tough place to start, but that was always my aim to get back for at least that. I was trying to get back for a game or too sooner, but it wasn’t to be.”
When Gloucester took on Leinster at the RDS last month, Lloyd Evans and Alex Hearle were the only players to retain their place in the starting line-up from the previous weekend’s success at the expense of Bordeaux-Bègles.
With their opponents making just four alterations from their win against Racing 92 six days earlier, the English Premiership side unsurprisingly shipped a heavy 57-0 reversal.
George Skivington’s charges are expected to be much closer to full strength in front of a home crowd, however, and Keenan acknowledged Leinster will need to be prepared for an entirely different challenge on this occasion.
“I think there’ll be a lot of changes. We’re expecting a different 15, a different 23 than what faced us in the RDS. I think they’ll go full whack. They obviously beat Bordeaux in their other game and still eight of the 12 teams in each pool qualifies. They’re still definitely in the hunt in Europe and they’ll definitely want to come out and win,” Keenan added.
