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Hugo Keenan becomes first 7s graduate to sign IRFU central contract
By Liam Heagney
Ireland full-back Hugo Keenan has seen his stellar form rewarded with a three-year IRFU deal. The Leinster No15 was one of the players brought into the national team by Andy Farrell in 2020 after he succeeded Joe Schmidt. He has since made the position previously occupied by the now-retired Rob Kearney his own and he was the scorer of the opening try in last Saturday's Guinness Six Nations win over France.
A statement read: “Ireland and Leinster full-back Hugo Keenan has signed a three-year IRFU contract that will see him continue his career in Ireland until the end of the 2025/26 season.
“Hugo made his international debut against Italy in October 2020 in the delayed Six Nations. Keenan has started 27 of Ireland’s last 29 games, scoring eight tries. He won a Triple Crown with Ireland in 2022 and played every minute of Ireland’s three-Test series against New Zealand.
“At U20s level, Keenan started every game for Ireland in 2016 across the Six Nations and the World Rugby U20 Championships where the team reached the final in Manchester. He is also an Ireland 7s international, competing in the shorter code from 2017 to 2019.
“He made his Leinster debut against Zebre in November 2016 and has since amassed 51 appearances for his province, scoring 13 tries and winning URC titles in 2020 and 2021.”
IRFU performance director David Nucifora said: "Hugo is the first player to come through the sevens programme to attain a central XVs contract. His dedication to improvement and his drive have got him to this point of his career and after impressing in his first season at senior international level, he has kicked on again over the past 12 months.
“He is the type of player that drives standards around him and he will have a key role to play for both Ireland and Leinster over the next few seasons."
Keenan added: "I’m delighted to be part of two very competitive and ambitious environments with Ireland and Leinster. I’m enjoying my rugby and looking to improve each week and there are so many opportunities to learn more about the game with the quality of coaches we have at provincial and national level."
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Latest Comments
I clearly wasn’t referring to White.
There was more than one failing here, and they extend across process, procedure and likely policy too.
Having supposedly elite level officials if not ignore, then at the very least heavily downplay self evidently violent conduct, was a poor look for the sport. It reflects very poorly on both the standards of those officials, as well as the game’s governance more generally.
By rights, all concerned should be reprimanded & removed from test match duties pending remedial training. However, we all know that will not happen. World Rugby are essentially immune to criticism and if not yet at FIFA levels, are increasingly behaving in a similar, cabal like manner.
The move to increase punishment for head contact was in response to an impending legal challenge by former players. One that is likely to threaten the entire sport as we know it. Hence the evolution & application of the ‘tackle framework’, a key aspect of which now involves the ability of officials to link processes and share the on-field administrative burden.
Having a referee refer this incident to the bunker for review after clearly stating ‘head contact’, and in relation to a post-whistle and therefore off the ball incident, was either professionally incompetent, or if taken in order to distance himself from a decision that may have affected the tournament chances of the union to which he is affiliated, wilfully negligent.
The second of those two options is clearly far more serious - and indeed, potentially even legally cuplable. However, even the former is not a good look for a professional sport in an era of heightened CTE awareness.
Extremely poor all round, I’m afraid.
Go to comments“I don't know of any young players who left to go to university and then were awarded professional rugby contacts to an English/Scottish team.” No, I don’t know of any. Gareth Steenson would be the closest. He was at Queen’s, and then went over to England, ending up having such a stellar career with Exeter Chiefs. Any others would have started with Ulster first. Ian Whitten at Exeter, and currently Niall Annett at Bath, Niall Armstrong at Exeter.
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