HUGO KEENAN IS well-placed to offer some insight into Noel McNamara, who has now been confirmed as the man to will take over from Leo Cullen at Leinster next year.

Not that the fullback had much of an inside track, finding out about the appointment in the same way so many did over the last few days.

In short, a mate saw the story break online over the weekend, and passed this information on to Keenan. Official confirmation came via a text to the players from Leinster Rugby not long before the news was made official publicly early on Tuesday morning.

No drama. All that matters is that Leinster are happy with the appointment, and as one of the many in the squad who have previously worked with the current Bordeaux attack coach, Keenan falls into that bracket.

Keenan was speaking to the media in Abbotstown on Tuesday. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

The 30-year-old was coached by McNamara at UCD and with the Leinster A squad as he was moving up the ranks at the province, and remembers a detailed, attack-minded coach with a striking talent for motivating his teams.

“He knows the club itself. He’s been through the ranks, whether it’s through the Academy system, the A’s. I’d say he worked with Felipe [Contepomi] a lot back in the day, and he knows what Leinster is about.

“But he’s also gone off, and I’d like to think he’s got an ability to grow the club now and grow the way we play while keeping how we like to play and the Leinster identity as well.

“His presence amongst the group (is a strength), he’s a very good pre-match speaker, he’s well able to motivate lads and pull on the right strings.

“Obviously he’s a very attacking and backs mindset as well, so excited to see what he brings.

“I think it’s an exciting appointment. It’s nice to have somebody who knows Leinster DNA and what they’re about, but is probably going to put his own fingerprint on it and has lots of experience to back that up.”

That experience includes a stint with South Africa’s Sharks before moving into his current role in Bordeaux, where the Clare man has been central to lifting the club to the top of the European game with back-to-back Champions Cup titles.

“I’m sure he’s got a different perspective of things, getting out of the building, going down to South Africa, challenging himself down there, and then going so well and thriving at Bordeaux. And you see what their backline and attacks have been producing.

The fullback hasn't played a home game for Ireland since the 2025 Six Nations. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“I suppose that’s his fingerprint on it, and yeah, excited to see what he has and to work with him. It’s positive for me and everyone, and for Leinster so it’s obviously big boots to fill with Leo, and there were lots of candidates in the mix as well.

“I’m sure he learnt a lot from Leo during his time in Leinster, being head of the Academy while Leo was head coach,” Keenan adds.

“Noel probably learned from him how to deal with players, how to get messages across and things like that. There are similarities.

“But he’s his own man. He’ll come in and do things his own way, I’m sure.”

While Leinster will be happy to have clarity on Cullen’s successor so early in the season, for many of the playing group there are more pressing matters at hand, as Ireland head into a four-game Test window which kicks-off against Argentina in Dublin on Friday night [KO 8.10pm].

Remarkably, Keenan hasn’t played a home game for his country since the 2025 Six Nations. After clearing up some injury issues, he came into this campaign on the back of what he reckons was his ‘longest pre-season.’

“Both in terms of time off and training,” Keenan explains.

“My body’s feeling good. I had a few bits I worked on, both body-wise and performance-wise, speed and a few things in the gym as well.

“It was a good pre-season (with Leinster) because half of it was spent in South Africa at altitude, training and preparing the team down there while say last year I was injured, but there were a lot of moving parts, nearly a Leinster crowd, an Irish summer tour and then the Lions group as well.

The 30-year-old says the pre-season was the longest he's had. Nick Elliott / INPHO Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO

“So it was a bit split. I think getting a lot of lads down to South Africa, sticking together, raising the training standard, training hard at altitude, having proper tough conditioning sessions after. And those bonds that you make along the way was a brilliant idea by Leo.

“I’m sure he used the fact that it was his last year to get a bit more budget to bring a few extra players down and obviously you saw the Connacht result,  I’d like to think that’s a reflection of how we’ve been training and the whole group and how we’ve started and how we’ve got stuck into pre-season together.”

Keenan will be a key man in what is a huge month for this Irish squad, on the back of a mixed Six Nations and summer Test window in 2026.

“It was our consistency in performance over the summer. You saw where the lads got to in the highs of those English and Scottish performances in the Six Nations, and we showed glimpses of it against Australia. We showed good character coming back against them, but we really didn’t deliver against New Zealand when it mattered.

“It’s obviously a tough place to go, Eden Park. But we knew ourselves that we let ourselves down that day, that we weren’t accurate enough. So we’ve had some good honest reviews. We obviously had a mini-camp on the 31st of August, which was a little bit of a reflection on that, and the look at going forward.

“That was nice to come together in between two campaigns, and then we hit the ground running last week, and it meant that we were a little bit ahead of where we were previously. We had a little bit more interaction with the coaches over the last couple of months in between, and we’re well aware of where we need to get better.

“It’s just about implementing it and getting a bit more consistency in our performance on the pitch.”