FOLLOWING AN IMMENSELY frustrating spell on the sidelines, Leinster and Ireland hooker Rónan Kelleher was glad to be back in the saddle for last Saturday’s United Rugby Championship triumph over Glasgow Warriors.
Having already missed out on the summer tour to New Zealand because of a shoulder injury, Kelleher was also marked absent for the autumn international window with a hamstring issue that kept him on the treatment table for several weeks.
He admits it was difficult during this period to watch his provincial team-mates training away for the return of the URC — and his Ireland colleagues as they went on an unbeaten run against South Africa, Fiji and Australia. The St Michael’s College graduate came through the Glasgow game unscathed, however, and is now hoping for another chance to impress against Ulster tomorrow night at the RDS (kick-off 7.35pm).
“It was definitely tough watching it. All the lads in camp, it was difficult. Just rehabbing, you’re not really part of proper training here either because you’re separate from the group just trying to recover. It’s definitely a difficult time when you’re out injured and that was just emphasised in those big weeks when the internationals are away and doing a job,” Kelleher acknowledged.
“It was just such an innocuous thing, running and then the hamstring went. I thought it might be something small and it would heal over, but then getting the scans revealed it was something bigger. I’m just glad I’m over it now, touch wood, and it will be pretty plain-sailing for the rest of the season.”
Since the latter broke onto the scene post-lockdown in 2020, there has been a fierce rivalry between Kelleher and Dan Sheehan for the number two jersey in both Leinster and Ireland.
Yet injuries have meant that Kelleher last featured at international level in the defeat to France in the Six Nations Championship back on 12 February – a game that saw him being withdrawn with just 26 minutes gone on the clock in Saint-Denis. This has enabled Sheehan to establish himself in the Ireland team and he has gone on to start eight of the nine international tests that followed their 30-24 reversal to Les Bleus.
The one exception was the recent success over Fiji at the Aviva, when Sheehan took over from Rob Herring for the final seven minutes of a 35-17 triumph. The strong performances of his chief rival throughout 2022 has only served to heighten the intensity of their battle for the pivotal hooker position at the provincial and international grades, but Kelleher views this as a positive for Irish rugby in the long run.
“He’s playing great at the minute. It’s one of those ones where it can only benefit the team, though. You look at what the Springboks did in 2019 when they had [Malcolm] Marx and Bongi [Mbonambi]. They had minutes to go around, so as long as we’re winning that’s the main thing.
“The fact that we’re both there, that competition is pushing us both on. It’s just making sure to keep challenging each other and obviously learning together as well because we’d be doing a lot of individual prep together. That can only be a good thing for us both and with Ireland as well, please God.”
While his international ambition remains the same, Kelleher’s focus for now is on a hectic schedule for Leinster. Tomorrow’s clash with interprovincial adversaries Ulster is the second of 10 consecutive games for the eastern province without a break in between and Kelleher is ready to seize every opportunity he gets.
“It’s an important block for us with Europe and the inter-pro games. Hopefully we can keep winning and keep that momentum going. It would be great to do that, it’s a huge block for us,” Kelleher added.
“This is the business part of the season where it’s the nitty-gritty, a massive part of what happens now will determine what happens in May and June so it’s all hands on deck now for the next 10 weeks.”
Amen!
He is spot on. This years six nations has been so dull and dour. Forget the wins so far – has anyone actually enjoyed watching Ireland so far? One try scored from a pass in this years campaign so far – says it all.
2 point penalties and 1 point drop goals would be a start, making scoring tries even more valuable and dissuading teams from milking the penalty as reward is low. It may also result in more instances of teams going for high risk plays/true attempts on penalty advantage, like Henshaw v England, with a droppy not equal to the successful penalty goal if not advantage comes from playing on. Making the English and French top tier closed leagues have strong arguements. ATM winning at all costs is everything. Makes for usually dull games despite quality of players. Get rid of fear of relegation and it might open up more like the closed Super Rugby
Even better to penalise conceding deliberate penalties even more….
Yeah reducing the points for a penalty just promotes the defence to play more cynically as there is less of a punishment.
I’ve always thought that 6 points for a try and 3 for a conversion would be enough to entice more attacking play.
More liberal use of the yellow card would be good – there shouldn’t need to be a warning or much of a precedent to dish one out. Kill the ball 2m out from your own line 30 seconds in? Off you march.
I’ll e the first to admit my logic isn’t completely sound. I thought about the defending team being cynical after my OP, that’s a good point. I suppose there is an onus on attitude change. In my second point about closing off the two biggest European club leagues, unlikely as that is to happen right now, maybe it would help with the overall style of rugby played in NH. It’s interesting after Hansen made these comments last week or whatever, I watched Highlanders Tahs in Super Rugby. The endeavour to score tries is always there, regardless of kickable penalties. I don’t love SR, but it’s interesting to see the attitude difference after watching so much 6N the past month or so
The scrum still requires serious work. More often than not a penalty is given and many of us (the refs included) are none the wiser as to what really happened. Its all down to perception and thats really not ideal as is the ridiculous play time which is lost with scrum resets. At the very least the timer should be paused (similar to when injuries occur) and resumed once the ball has been cleared from the scrum. Fans get bored and feel somewhat cheated when over an eighth of the game has been held up in a confusing huddle.
Secondly i firmly believe rucking should be brought back. Take the responsibility out of the official’s hands and give it to the players. Want to deliberately loiter or slow the ball? Heres a few boot scrapes to encourage you to move on. Any over-zealous rucking (attacking of the head) obviously can’t be tolerated however players will quickly learn and adapt. Let the officials focus on ensuring the defensive team are onside.
Watch how much quicker the game will speed up from the lack of penalties and slowing down of the ball.
As a prop I enjoy the scrums but like everyone else I get frustrated when the ref keeps resetting and then gives penalties for little things.
Ways to make it better:
Make the scrumhalf feed it straight. First time he doesnt its a free, second time penalty, third time its the bin.
Dont wait for the perfect scrum. If it is some-way steady get the ball in. Its 16 big men trying to get the physical advantage, its rarely going to be perfect.
Dont penalise a prop if he is trying to keep the scrum up. If he puts his hand on the ground he is trying to stay up. Warn him you’ve seen it and give him a few seconds to rebind instead of immediately pinging him.
Have retired props watch each game with the TMO. Have them communicate with the ref at scrums, e.g. 3 green is boring; 1 red is dropping, etc.
Yeah, the use of the TMO at scrum time would be good. Perhaps they could use those location trackers the players have in their jerseys to determine what actually happened?
As a retired prop I think the scrum could be sorted by the referee bringing together both front rows first then the second rows introduced and lastly the back rows. The ref then gives the instruction to the 9 to ‘feed’ & then to the packs, ‘compete’. Where by the packs can then shove.
Trouble is these days most refs I’ve seen never played the game least of all were in a competitive scrum.
no more penalties at the scrum either or at least not for going backwards like it is now. free kick or play on. scrums shouldn’t decide the outcome of games.
To be fair, Wayne Barnes hasn’t even read the updated version of the Rule Book not to mind ripping it up!!
All the refs are struggling with the interpretation of what’s legal or not at the breakdown. As for the scrums, it’s a lucky dip with whatever ref is on duty that day!!! No consistency whatsoever!
I think Barnes actually reads it at half time and adds some new updates – how else do you explain how he manages to ref differently is each half
An English ref shouldn’t have been used IMO!! Is there an Irish ref doing England v France by any chance????!!!! It’s bad enough our TMO this weekend is English too!!! In the interest of fairness at the business end of the tournament Southern Hemisphere refs are a must!!
Reduce penalties to 2 points. Increase try to 6 points. After 4 tries scored in a game by a team every other try scored after by that team in the game, the conversion points given automatically.
At breakdown bring in 5 second challenge, if the team defending the breakdown haven’t had an attempt at getting their hands on the ball or counter rucking within 5 seconds of the ball going to ground then the ref calls no challenge and team defending players all have to get 1 metre back from ruck.
Reducing points from a penalty encourages defences to break the laws even more.
He’s asking for simplicity not complexity
What’s complex about it? Ball goes to ground, 1,2,3,4,5. No turn over, no counter ruck, so Defending team out, back 1 metre.
thats rugby league mate