THERE CAME A time in his mid-teens where Hugo Keenan decided he wanted more. He was ambitious, fiercely competitive, but struggling to make an impact on the rugby pitch. As his mates lined out for Blackrock’s first team, he was sitting on the bench with the fourths.
And so Keenan, along with his two brothers, arranged to do a series of one-on-one sessions with athletics coach David Sweeney – now of Athletics Ireland – who was doing some work at the school then.
“It was the summer of fourth year, and I was starting to try take rugby a bit seriously,” Keenan tells The 42. “I wanted to make the fifth year squad and I didn’t really have a starting point for the gym. So we did running sessions, speed sessions, worked on running technique, but it was also learning how to lift weights properly as well, because I was probably missing out on it in terms of development in school because I wasn’t on the top teams.”
The 42 is chatting to Keenan in a Dublin hotel on a down week for the Ireland squad. He’s been glad of the chance to step outside the bubble. Before we get to talking about rugby there’s a quick debrief on Chelsea’s pre-season fortunes, with new striker Nicolas Jackson already catching Keenan’s eye. His love for soccer is well known, with Damien Duff an early hero for a young kid who grew up obsessed with sport, washing his knees on the journeys between soccer and rugby matches.
Last year The 42 spoke to some of Keenan’s former coaches about the fullback’s late rise through rugby. They all pointed to how quickly Keenan could learn new skills and absorb information, and how hard he was willing to work on making himself better.
“I think as a kid you pick up things like that (clicks fingers), so any bit of advice or help was good,” he continues.
I was always competitive. I always hated losing, I can remember crying after losing as a 10-12 year old. I’d give 100% at everything, I think that was probably just ingrained in me at an early age.
“And I always loved playing. So naturally as a relatively young kid, you’re always going to want to be on better teams. Rugby was always popular in Blackrock, and you’d have friends on better teams so you wanted to keep improving yourself. I was lucky my parents facilitated that and gave me the little extra help, some pushes in terms of those couple of sessions with Dave. But yeah, I was motivated. They wouldn’t have done it otherwise.”
The sessions made a lasting impression on Keenan’s athletic profile, with former Leinster coach Stuart Lancaster highlighting his speed endurance as a golden trait for a back three player.
Keenan himself looks at the other skills he relies on as a fullback now – the balance, the footwork, his confidence under a high ball – and credits his multi-sport background. That athletic ability shaped across different sports led one of his coaches at Blackrock, James English, to move him from out-half to fullback.
“Especially as a back, it just hones in on all the different skills, whether it’s hand-eye coordination or whatever.
I’d definitely encourage any young player to try as much as they can and see what suits them. Say if you’re playing rugby or soccer, but you end up thriving at Gaelic, I’m sure those skills will all transfer over and will all help with their development.
“I think it’s the same with Sevens Rugby as well. I think that also had a part to play in it (for me).
“But soccer was always number one. I joined Mount Merrion Youths when I was six or seven and played with them all the way through until 17. I was probably best at it in terms of other sports.
“I played a small bit of Gaelic in primary school [St Mary’s of Booterstown]. Won a Cumban na Mbunscol competition in sixth class, so lifted that trophy in Croke Park, which was a bit of craic. We play St Mochtas in the final and Vakh Abdaladze was playing for them — I still have the slagging rights over him!
“Then I was playing Lansdowne minis growing up, played a bit of tennis, a bit of golf.”
Eventually rugby took centre stage. Keenan made huge progress across his final years in Blackrock, winning a Senior Cup in 2014 before earning a spot in the Leinster Academy. Even then, he had to be patient for an opportunity.
His senior Leinster debut came via a nine-minute cameo against Zebre in November 2016. He added another eight minutes the following season, and played three games across 2018/19 – in between lining out for the Ireland Sevens from 2017-2019. The following season Covid came, and everything changed. In October 2020, Andy Farrell handed Keenan his first Ireland cap.
“It took a lot of luck to get that chance. Firstly in Leinster, I hadn’t played any European Rugby before Covid. And then the nature of that, people came back and there was a few injuries. So I only got my first shot at the end of the 2019 season. I played in the Pro14 semi and final, played in that Saracens (Champions Cup) quarter-final, then got brought into the Irish squad just because there wasn’t a whole lot of other options and got that start against Italy out of a bit of luck, but managed to go alright and stay in the team and it was brilliant that Faz and Catty and Si and all the coaches trusted me from there.”
Keenan quickly made the Ireland 15 shirt his own, and is now preparing to travel to his first World Cup as a one of the most reliable figures in Farrell’s starting side. He’s just come out of another excellent individual season, across which he noticeably grew as an attacking threat.
“It’s not like I wasn’t trying to (get involved in the attack) in previous seasons, but some games, the ball comes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.
But there is an extra effort you can make, and it’s working out how to work smarter, which is something I’ve been been looking to improve on rather than running around like a bit of headless chicken sometimes.
“That’s come with a bit of analysis, a bit of liaising with coaches in Ireland and Leinster and yeah, I’m trying to get on the ball and get involved as much as I can to help the team.
“A lot of it is reviewing as well – why did you do this? What could you have done? So it’s looking at it that way as well as looking at the opposition.”
Keenan lives with Ireland teammates Caelan Doris and Rónan Kelleher, so rugby is never too far from his mind. He switches off by going to watch his mates’ football matches, or getting out on the golf course at Carton House, where Ciarán Frawley, Josh van der Flier, Dan Sheehan and Stuart McCloskey tend to be the names near the top of the leaderboard. There’s a tinge of frustration as Keenan reveals his handicap has slipped from two to three, but he’s hoping a new set of clubs will get him back on track.
Pre-season has been intense, with the squad spending more time on the pitch with Nick Winkelman – the IRFU’s head of athletic performance and science – in a bid to improve the explosive speed of a group who already pride themselves on their fitness.
“He’s got a serious background in terms of preparing NFL lads for the combine. He’s been with the IRFU since 2016, but he hasn’t done that much coaching with us and he’s getting his hands on us for two speed sessions a week at the moment.
“They’ve allotted him a bit more time and lads have really bought into it. He’s American so he’s got all these brilliant catchphrases and terminologies and analogies for running. Lads are loving the sessions and getting good gains out of them. He’s great craic as well as being really good at delivering these sessions, which I’ve really enjoyed.”
Saturday sees Ireland play their opening World Cup warm-up game against Italy, a welcome opportunity to get back on the pitch after a challenging summer of work in Abbotstown.
“Sick of training at this stage!” Keenan laughs, “but you have to constantly just try to keep improving.
“International rugby is so tough and it tests you so much that I don’t think you’ll ever feel comfortable. That’s the nature of it – it always feels like such a challenge coming up against all these top-class teams in the Six Nations or November Series and what we’re facing at the World Cup, so I don’t think you can get comfortable.”
From the Blackrock bench to the Rugby World Cup, it’s been quite the journey.
“I was never too ambitious with my goals,” he adds. “I was always looking at it more short-term.
“But it’s exciting (to think about the World Cup). It’s where I want to be.”
Hugo Keenan is an ambassador for Inishella, BWG Foods’ new quality Bord Bia approved Irish meat brand available in their nationwide network of SPAR, EUROSPAR, MACE, LONDIS, and XL stores and supermarkets. For more information on the Inishella range please visit your local participating store.
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