Kelleher happy to bounce back from recent woe as hooker eyes Ireland call

UP until recently, apart from a couple of enforced injury setbacks, this professional rugby business had been going pretty well for Rónan Kelleher.

After enjoying an impressive breakthrough season, Kelleher had established himself as Leinster’s first-choice hooker, and featured off the bench in each of Ireland’s three Six Nations games earlier this year. Life was good, until the 22-year-old was the fall guy for a shaky lineout performance in the PRO14 final win over Ulster.

Almost a month later, it still seems as though it was a systemic failure on Leinster’s part, but while the blame did not lie solely on Kelleher’s young shoulders, he took the brunt of the responsibility, which cost him his place in the team for the Champions Cup quarter-final defeat to Saracens, as Seán Cronin moved ahead of him.

A strong performance off the bench, however, served as a timely reminder of his power around the pitch, and having worked tirelessly on his set-piece, Kelleher believes he has bounced back well.

“To be honest, naturally, I was disappointed,” he admitted.

Important

“But then, pretty instantaneously, it just meant it turned to, ‘I have a new job to do’. We all knew how important the bench was going to be against Saracens.

“There were a few different things (with the lineout). I thought, to be fair, Ulster had a good defensive system. We were trying to win ball at the tail and they were going up contesting, but it was disappointing that we couldn’t get proper launch into the game.

“We have been focusing on that area, getting comfortable with our drill again. I feel like it’s fixed now,” he added.

Kelleher will be hoping to follow up last week’s decent showing in the win over the Dragons with a similar display in Treviso this Saturday.

With the Ireland squad expected to be announced today, he is keen to ensure he wins his fourth cap against Italy this month, as he builds on his first Six Nations.

“It went well,” he added. “I was coming off a broken hand, so I was definitely thrown in at the deep end, but it was really enjoyable. It was great learning off all the coaches – ‘Faz’ (Andy Farrell), ‘Catty’ (Mike Catt), ‘Fogs’ (John Fogarty), it was brilliant. And then working with Simon (Easterby) in the lineout, it was a different system than we have here (Leinster).

“It was interesting picking that up quite quickly and running with it from there. It was a great learning experience and please God I’ll be involved in the future as well.”