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Lions assistant Robin McBryde has backed Ireland and Leinster hooker Ronan Kelleher to come away from his training week in Jersey feeling ready for a potential call-up should the Warren Gatland-led squad encounter any injury trouble with the No2 position in South Africa.
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With only 25 of the selected 37 Lions and one of the three chosen hookers available for the first week of the 2021 tour, Kelleher was invited to train on the Channel Islands this week before linking up with Andy Farrell’s Irish squad for their summer series fixtures in Dublin versus Japan and the USA.
The 23-year-old broke onto the international scene in February 2020 after Farrell’s appointment as the Ireland successor to Joe Schmidt, a transition that coincided with the retirement of veteran hooker and captain Rory Best.
Kelleher has since gone on to earn eleven Test caps, four as a starter in the Ireland front row, and McBryde, the long-serving Wales assistant who has been working at Leinster since the 2019 World Cup, has now explained why the Dubliner was the perfect call to assist Lions training in a week where Jamie George and Luke Cowan-Dickie were still with their clubs in England.
That left the tourists with just Ken Owens as their only hooker for the opening week and in order to have two packs going up against each other in training, Kelleher was brought in to help the forwards lay down some early markers ahead of a match schedule that commences with the June 26 game versus Japan in Edinburgh before Gatland’s squad flies to South Africa for their eight matches there.
"He has trained fully today"#LionsRugby https://t.co/K8GZjVThiw
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 17, 2021
“He will grow undoubtedly,” reckoned McBryde when asked what a week filling in at Lions training could do for Kelleher’s career. “There were some close calls and Ronan’s was a close one as well. The conversation I had with Warren, we knew we were going to only carry one hooker with Jamie and Luke not here, so getting someone in as a stand-in would have been wasted on someone who is not on that standby list.
“It gives Ronan an opportunity to make an impression on the other coaches. I’m familiar with Ronan from a Leinster point of view and I had no doubts that he could come here and really set a marker for himself. It’s a great opportunity for Ronan and that has enabled us to work with two packs.
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“We have 14 forwards, at least we can do a few set scrums against live opposition so it’s great for the team, for the squad, for the pack collective to have that ability to go through that work, and then from Ronan’s point of view, it’s great for him as well to have that experience to rub shoulders with the best of the best of the British and Irish Lions.
“It is going to grow him as an individual and I’m sure Ireland will get to use him in these summer Tests, so it works both ways and you never know he could join us at a later date as well.”
The Ireland boss has had his say on speculation he will be working in South Africa next month #LionsRugby
https://t.co/uixeQzo6yE— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 15, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Don’t disagree with much of this but it appears you forgot Rodda and Beale, who started at the Force on the weekend.
9 Go to commentsExcept for the injured Zach Gallagher this would be Saders best forward pack for the season. Blackadder needs to stay at 7, for all of Christies tackling he is not dominant and offers very little else. McNicholfullback is maybe a good option, Fihaki not really upto it, there was a reason Burke played there last year. Maybe Havilli to 2nd five McLeod to wing. Need a strong winger on 1 side to compliment Reece
1 Go to commentsTo me TJ is clearly the best 9 in the competition right now but he's also a proven player off the bench, there's few playmaking players who can come off the bench as calm and settled as he is, Beauden can, TJ can and I doubt any of the scrumhalves in contention can, if they want to experiment with new 9s I want him on the bench ready to step in if they crumble under the pressure. The Boks put their best front row on the bench, I'd like to see us take a similar approach, the Hurricanes have been doing similar things with players like Kirifi.
33 Go to commentsROG has better chance to win a WC if he starts training and make himself eligible as a player. He won’t make the Ireland squad but I reckon he may get close with Namibia (needs to improve his Afrikaans) or Portugal. Both sides had 1000:1 odds to win the RWC in 2023 which is an improvement on ROG’s odds of winning a RWC as a coach. Unlike Top 14 teams, national teams can’t go shopping and buy the best players - you work with the available talent pool and turn them into world beaters.
2 Go to commentsthat backline nope that backline is terrible why would you have sevu Reece when he’s not even top 5 wingers in the comp why have Blackadder when there’s better players no Scott barret isn’t an automatic the guy is more of a liability than anything why have him there when you have samipeni who’s far far better
33 Go to commentsAh, good to find you Nick. Agree with everything about Cale. So much to like about his game
49 Go to commentsNot too bad. Questions at 6, lock and HB for me. The ABs will be a lot stronger once Jordan and Roigard return. Also, work needs to be made to secure Frizzell back for next season and maybe also Mo’unga; they’re just wasting time playing in japan
33 Go to commentsOn the title, i wonder for many of those people it is a case something like a belief in working smarter, not harder?
1 Go to commentsForget Sotutu. One of those whose top level is Super Rugby. Id take a punt on Wallace Sititi Finau ahead of Glass body Blackadder.
33 Go to commentsI’m a pensioner so I've been around a bit. My opinion of SBW is he is an elite athlete and a great New Zealander and roll model. He has been to the top and knows what he's talking about. To all the negative comments regarding SBW the typical New Zealand way, cut that tall poppy down.
17 Go to commentsI'm not listening to a guy moralise over others when this is the guy who walked out mid season on Canterbury RLFC when he had a contract with them, what a hypocrite. Those praising him are a joke.
17 Go to commentsI’d put Finau at 6 instead of Blackadder but that’s the only change I’d make. Can’t wait to see who Razor picks.
33 Go to commentsTamati Williams, Codie Taylor, and Same Cane? Not sure about Hoskins Sotutu at test level. Wasn’t that impressive last season. Need a balance between experience and talent/youth.
33 Go to commentsInteresting insight. Fantastic athlete, and a genuine human being.
17 Go to commentsThey played at night in Suva last weekend and it’s an afternoon game forecast for 19 degrees in Canberra this weekend. Heat change is a non issue.
1 Go to commentsWishing Rosie a speedy recovery
1 Go to commentsObscene that SA haven’t been knocking
1 Go to commentsChances of Blackadder being injured seem too high to give him serious consideration. ABs loosie combination finally looked good with 2 committed to tackling and clearing rucks in the centre and Ardie roaming. Hoskins/Ardie together would force one of them into where they don’t excel and don’t get to use their talent, or require a change in tactics. If we continue to evolve last years systems I would take Papali’i and Finau at 6 and 7 (conceding that Blackadder will be injured) and Ardie at 8.
33 Go to commentsArdie’s preferred position 7? Where do they get these writers from? I've no idea where he's playing in Japan, but the previous two seasons he wore the 7 jersey exactly twice.
17 Go to commentsNot good to hear Ulster described as “financially troubled”. Did not think it was getting to that level. I would hope the Irish system of spreading players of talent away from Leinster would kick in now. Better to have a Leinster fringe player with Ulster or Connacht, then getting only a few games a season in Dublin. 10, for example, would seem to be a case for spreading the talent. I would not be at all adverse to a SA man coming in as head coach/DR. Ludeke is worth trying. Certainly got a long and impressive coaching career at this level…..149 games in SR, then Japan, 30 years experience. And Ulster’s ledger of successful SA coaches and players is on the positive side. Is talk of Ruan Pienaar interested in coming back as a coach…..could be a good combination with Ludeke. And Pienaar and family would have no settling in to do, one would judge. He loved life in Ulster when there, by all reports.
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