FITTINGLY, IT WAS Hugo Keenan who had Ireland’s first touch of the game in Cardiff yesterday.
He calmly gathered a Welsh kick close to the right touchline and carried the ball back to set Andy Farrell’s side on their way towards the opening try of a 34-10 bonus-point win that kick-starts their Grand Slam bid.
Having made that solid start, Keenan never put a foot wrong in an excellent fullback performance.
Funnily enough, the 26-year-old had relatively few involvements in the game. He made only one tackle attempt, which the official match stats counted as a miss. But stats don’t do justice to the sense of calm Keenan exuded from the number 15 shirt.
He is now part of Ireland’s leadership group and this composed performance showed why. It was further evidence as to why no player has enjoyed more minutes on the pitch for Ireland under Farrell than Keenan.
In the build-up to Ireland’s second try, he made a scything half-break to highlight his attacking threat but his first big defensive play came soon after that James Ryan score.
Johnny Sexton’s pass appeared to be knocked-on in the tackle by Wales prop Tomas Francis and suddenly, the loose ball on the ground was a huge danger for Ireland. Rio Dyer pounced, but Keenan reacted superbly.
We can see above how Keenan starts on the far side of the breakdown but his alertness and work-rate to cover are brilliant.
Dyer nudges ahead twice but Keenan has the pace and composure to win the race to the ball, gather it on move, and prevent Dyer from finishing.
It hands a five-metre scrum to the Welsh but Keenan’s cover work prevents a try that would have brought Wales back to 14-7 after Ireland’s superb start.
Having cleaned that situation up, Keenan showed his aerial prowess just a few minutes later, starting what was an excellent afternoon under the high ball with a dominant gather of a Welsh box kick.
When he wasn’t fielding Welsh kicks calmly, Keenan was aggressively chasing Irish kicks.
His pace and bravery mean he often gets up into a contest to win the ball back, as he did in the 29th minute as he rose over opposite number Liam Williams.
Even when he can’t get a hand to the ball, Keenan leaves a dent. We get one such example below as the Irish fullback hammers Williams just as he marks a kick from Sexton that travels slightly too far.
This clip also underlines how assertive Keenan has become. Although he recognises that he won’t get into a contest to regain Sexton’s kick, he fully commits to making a physical impact on Williams.
He lands a huge tackle to make his mark.
Keenan didn’t have many opportunities to show his skill level in this game, but there was this delightful pick-up inside Ireland’s 22 during the chaos of the third quarter as his team struggled for momentum.
In truth, there’s much more to Keenan’s game than we saw in this clash in Cardiff but he was limited in an attacking sense.
Instead, his primary job was to infuse his team with a sense of composure.
In the instance below, Keenan is calm in the backfield after covering across onto a Joe Hawkins kick.
Rather than rushing an attempt to scoop the bouncing ball up, the Irish fullback allows it to roll into the in-goal area. That means a goal-line drop-out, so Wales do get the ball back near their own halfway line, but Keenan isn’t risking anything going wrong.
Ireland get 30 seconds to compose themselves.
Much of the good work Keenan does for Ireland doesn’t make the highlight reels. His work-rate, backfield positioning, covering efforts, and aerial skills may not always be flash, but they’re undoubtedly important for Farrell’s side.
Amidst some of the chaos in Cardiff yesterday, Keenan was a beacon of calm.
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