RÓNAN KELLEHER ABOUT sums up the closeness of this Ireland squad when he’s asked about the battle between him and Leinster teammate Dan Sheehan for the starting berth at hooker and he immediately mentions ‘Squish’, aka Rob Herring, before diving into their shared dynamic.
“It’s great, like. There’s obviously the three of us there trying to fight it out for that jersey. It’s just pushing each other on, making sure we’re all on our best form, and making sure we’re all constantly bouncing ideas off each other.
“It’s just making sure that what we’re doing is benefiting the team, that we’re in a good spot.”
To Kelleher’s left during Ireland’s press conference in Abbotstown, Josh van der Flier drew a chuckle from the assembled media when he put it that having all 37 squad members training fully during Wednesday’s early session had automatically put him in “better form”, just for the simple fact of knowing that none of the group had been left to stew over a knock or a niggle on the sidelines.
Explaining how he maintains his own on-field form, the reigning World Player of the Year posits that he’s equally motivated by the privilege of playing in a back row containing two more of Peter O’Mahony, Caelan Doris and Jack Conan as he is by the prospect of being overtaken by one of them or by somebody else.
Clichés become so for a reason and, with this Ireland team, those pertaining to a wider camaraderie absolutely stand to reason.
“Some lads you might not know so well but you’re always better friends with them than you were before”, Van der Flier says, “which I think probably doesn’t sound like much looking at the performance side of things — but it makes a huge difference when you’re playing with lads who you know well and are your friends.
“I suppose lineout defence would be one thing: Rónan and I would tend to be beside each other for that. As an example, we’d look at video clips together and see what threats the opposition has. You get in those small groups and try and do the analysis on the opposition and learn from each other. I’d see Rónan with the other hookers going through what some of them did well in training, what some could do better.
“It’s been really good, those little small groups and those groups of players trying to help each other improve.”
Kelleher has two housemates by the name of Caelan Doris and Hugo Keenan. In trying to sum up how three Ireland internationals spend their downtime, he sounds about as uncertain as any 20-something-year-old man who has ever shared a living space with close friends. “The three of us together in the house… It’s kind of whatever, really, like; whatever any 25-year-olds do in their spare time, like!” the hooker laughs. “Just chill more than anything else.
“There’s definitely a good bit of switching off. Obviously, you have to keep previewing and keep looking at things while you’re in camp. As Josh alluded to, there, with that lineout defence stuff, I’d also be going through that with Caelan. And also just kind of planning our week, and what we’re going to do in training each week.
It’s very handy to have someone in the house with you who you can just bounce ideas off.
“But it’s equally as important that you have complete switch-off, that you don’t think about rugby for a bit and you’re able to reset your mind, really.”
After an off-week during which such a recharge was required, all minds are now firmly fixed on Scotland.
Improving upon a shaky defensive display in Rome has understandably been one of Andy Farrell’s top orders of the week and, with 37 pairs of boots on the ground at Wednesday training, a more typical midfield pairing featuring one or both of Garry Ringrose and Robbie Henshaw might lend itself to that.
More certainly, Van der Flier flags Jamie Ritchie and the fit-again Hamish Watson as live dangers in his department. He speaks with a fondness for Ritchie especially, having gotten to know Scotland’s skipper a little bit during various post-match chats over the years.
The Scots are on for a Triple Crown while Ireland are intent on keeping their Grand Slam dream alive, albeit that particular prospective honour hasn’t been at the tips of tongues this week.
“It’s probably something that we would have mentioned at the start of the tournament so I wouldn’t say it’s a bad word” Van der Flier smiles, “but I think with the threat we have this weekend in a Scotland side that are playing so well, it’d be naive of us to be talking about a Grand Slam or anything like that.
“It’s going to be a massive challenge against a really good side.
“I mean, obviously, the goal for every team is that you want to win all your games, but I think it’ll be such a big challenge this week that you can’t look far past that.”
One thing that has been discussed among the squad, however — as recently as Wednesday, in fact — is the inevitably raucous atmosphere that awaits them in Edinburgh as the Scottish rugby public sniff a bit of silverware to mark their own progress.
And one gets the impression that if Murrayfield had a roof, this Ireland squad would ask for it to be closed just as Farrell did with Wales’ Principality Stadium at the start of this championship.
“For me personally, it’s really exciting to play at a packed Murrayfield — I only played in a Covid game there before,” says Kelleher.
“So, we’re really looking forward to the atmosphere and everything that comes with it. It’s something that we obviously discuss as a group and just kind of seeing that challenge as a positive, and really taking energy from that challenge.”
