IT MIGHT BE the best opportunity he has to experiment with his selection in this year’s competition, but Hugo Keenan is hoping Andy Farrell will keep faith with him when Ireland play host to Italy in the Six Nations at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday week.

Since making his senior international debut against the Italians in a delayed Championship encounter back in October 2020, Keenan has been the one constant in the Wigan man’s international line-ups. The versatile back-three operator has started all 18 of the games Ireland have played to date during the Covid-19 pandemic, lasting the full 80 minutes in 16 of those tests.

Having usurped some notable contenders to become Farrell’s full-back of choice, Keenan is now doing his best to hold off the claims of uncapped Ulster prospect Michael Lowry. While he will take it on the chin if the former England assistant coach decides to shuffle his pack, he is eager to continue his unbroken chain of starts.

“If he was to come to me and say something, I suppose you’d naturally still be disappointed. You always want to play, you always want to keep your hand in the team and be involved and keep playing for your country,” Keenan said.

“There’s always going to be competition, there’s always going to be people knocking on the door and there is at the moment. Listen, if that happens it is what it is, but I’m hoping to go again. I’m feeling good.”

Despite now being firmly established in the side, last Saturday’s defeat to France in Saint-Denis represented a peculiar landmark in the international career of Keenan. Whilst the Leinster star has now played in front of spectators at the Aviva on numerous occasions, the showdown with Les Bleus in Stade de France was his first time to do so for Ireland in an away setting.

Whereas Ireland’s home attendances gradually progressed from 3,000 for last July’s summer test against Japan to the sold-out crowd of 51,700 for the visit of New Zealand four months later, they went from facing Scotland behind closed doors in their previous overseas fixture 11 months ago to the cauldron of 80,000 people last weekend.

“18 caps in that was my first taste of what international rugby is really like away from home. It was straight into the deep end, wasn’t it? It was very loud, that sort of party atmosphere nearly. Luckily we had great travelling support over, there was I think five or ten thousand Irish over there,” Keenan explained.

“You could hear them in the stand. It’s a tough place to go. I don’t think there’s many tougher places at the moment with the French being in form and with that backing behind them. They obviously showed it in the autumn there, beating New Zealand at home and then Italy last week, so it’s a tough one.”

After a run of nine straight victories, it comes as little surprise that the Irish dressing room was a largely dejected one in the minutes that followed their 30-24 reversal to France.

Recovering from a 15-point deficit in the early stages of the second half, Ireland rallied and found themselves within striking distance of Fabien Galthié’s men only to eventually come up short. Yet Keenan (who is a new brand ambassador for Energia) has already watched the game back twice and takes solace from the fact they were so close to toppling the French without reaching their optimal performance levels.

“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty gutted after the game, for many reasons. How it finished, we felt that there was more in us and that we didn’t play to our potential. We got so close and it was a bit frustrating. It was a bit of a bleak changing room after, I’m not going to lie. It’s been a tough couple of days.

“Sometimes you don’t want the break, you just want to get straight into camp. You want to review it and get it over and done with so that you can take the learnings and feedback and move on.

“That’s probably the exciting bit now. We were only six points away from beating the French who are probably the form side in world rugby at the moment and I don’t think we played to our potential. Personally I feel I have more in me as well.”

Keenan at an empty Aviva Stadium in 2020, a far cry from the Stade de France cauldron. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO

One of the major positives to come out of Saturday’s game for many commentators was the encouraging display of Joey Carbery in the absence of team captain Jonathan Sexton.

A former schoolmate of the New Zealand-born fly-half – they were on Blackrock College’s Leinster Schools Senior Cup-winning team in 2014 – Keenan felt Carbery handled his first Six Nations start with poise.

“It’s obviously a testament to him that we were sort of under the cosh from the off and he was still able to perform to that high standard. Which is great and these are the testing environments.

“It doesn’t really get much harder at the moment than away in Paris with that form France are in and the confidence they’re playing with, and with that crowd behind them,” Keenan added.

Ireland legend Rob Kearney joined host Seán Burke, Murray Kinsella and Eimear Considine for the first episode of The Front Row, in partnership with Guinness. Rob ​​speaks about his most euphoric moment in a green jersey, life after retirement, a “brutal” return to the GAA pitch, and his skincare routine. Click here to subscribe or listen below: