IN THE FIVE years that have followed his senior debut for Leinster, Ronan Kelleher has accumulated a healthy list of team honours in professional rugby.
After first appearing for the province against Southern Kings at the RDS in February 2019, Kelleher went on to play a starring role as Leinster lifted the Pro14 titles in 2020 and 2021.
While the grand final in both of those years took place behind closed doors, the 26-year-old hooker came off the bench in front of a packed out Aviva Stadium earlier this month when Ireland claimed the Six Nations Championship with a final round win over Scotland.
Although he missed out on the decisive games through injury, he also played a part in Ireland’s Grand Slam triumph in 2023 as well as their march to a Triple Crown 12 months earlier.
Yet as much as Kelleher and his international colleagues in the Leinster squad have revelled in their successes at test level, the past two club seasons have seen the Blues falling short at the business end of both the United Rugby Championship and the European Champions Cup.
Given there is a clear motivation to bring silverware to the eastern province once again, Kelleher believes it has been easy to transition back from the international set-up.
“A lot of us haven’t won in Europe, and it has been obviously a few years now since we won the URC. We know there is a lot of unfinished business here, so everyone is champing at the bit to get back in,” Kelleher said.
“Everyone is really excited and bouncing back into training. It’s good to get everyone back together. I think because we haven’t won in the last two years, there is just that extra bit of motivation maybe. It’s just about making sure we’re there or thereabouts in the run-in of the season.”
Even though Ireland’s remaining provinces have gone through much longer barren spells in recent times (their arch rivals Munster ended a 12-year trophy drought in winning last season’s URC), Kelleher believes the disappointment at not having won a major trophy in the past two years is testament to the standards that have been set by Leinster squads in the past.
Similarly, there was an element of frustration both inside and outside of the Irish set-up when their quest for a second consecutive Six Nations Grand Slam was dashed by England at Twickenham Stadium on 9 March. Whilst being delighted that they held onto their Championship crown in the wake of that last-gasp loss, Kelleher believes people being somewhat disappointed at not completing another clean sweep of honours shows that Irish rugby is currently in a position of strength.
“It’s great place to be, I suppose! I can’t complain really. Obviously there was a little bit of disappointment after the England game, but for us we still managed to get it done with the back-to-back Championships.
It shows the health of Irish rugby that there was an air of disappointment that it wasn’t back-to-back Grand Slams, but that’s only a positive thing. We’re obviously in a very good place.”
Having sat out last weekend’s win away to Zebre in the aftermath of that eventful Six Nations odyssey, Kelleher is expected to feature in a top-of-the-table URC clash against The Bulls at the RDS tomorrow evening (kick-off 7.35pm).
The former St Michael’s College student was sidelined with a shoulder injury – sustained in a Champions Cup final loss to La Rochelle in Marseille – when the South African outfit defeated Leinster at the semi-final stage of the URC in the same venue a little under two years ago.
However, Kelleher stressed that June 2022 reversal to the Bulls isn’t at the forefront of the squad’s minds at the moment as the focus is instead on how important their latest meeting with the Pretoria side could prove to be in the wider context of the season.
“They [Bulls] are sitting four points behind us with a load of home games to come. We know this is a massive opportunity. It’s a big eight-point, 10-point swing, it could be in the table. It’s really important for us,” Kelleher added.
“It will be incredibly intense as well. They’re obviously off the back of a good win as well [against Dragons].
I think it will be very close and similar to European intensity and basically Test match intensity really.”