This time last year Ian Keatley was faced with a big decision.
Munster were lining up the signings of JJ Hanrahan and goal-kicking scrum-half James Hart. Keatley found himself backing up Tyler Bleyendaal for many of his side’s big games and there was clear interest from a couple of English outfits.
Rassie Erasmus, then Munster’s director of rugby, wanted him to stay, though. Keatley and his partner, Lisa, were also thinking of starting a family and he had put down roots at Munster.
Far away hills may have been green but, ultimately, he opted for those training and playing fields of Limerick. News of the departures of Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber, his assistant, took Keatley back a bit but he remains convinced that he made the right decision. earlier this season, he told The Hard Yards:
“I’ve been six years at Munster and this [contract] will take me to eight years. I love it here. I love playing in Thomond Park and Musgrave Park.
“This is my home here now.”
This season has been one of Keatley’s best in Munster red. Even before Bleyendaal’s neck injury, the Dubliner was his side’s first-choice outhalf. He started well in the Guinness PRO14 and kicked on in the Champions Cup, excelling in the home win over Racing 92. His Ireland call-up for the November internationals was certainly merited and Test caps number six and seven arrived in the wins over Fiji and Argentina.
Keatley was superb, like so many of his teammates, in the resounding home win over Leicester Tigers, at the beginning of the month. His showing in the dogged away win at Welford Road, in the return against Leicester, was even better. The fact that we are saying that despite the two handling errors he made in the opening stages says a lot about how well he recovered, and played.
Tigers hit the front, early on, and their high pressing defence for a couple of yips from Keatley. In the past, for Munster, this could have set the tone for a shaky performance. Keatley is in a different place right now and he has the full backing of his teammates. After his fifth minute knock-on, both Jean Kleyn and captain Peter O’Mahony were quick to tease him.
Munster’s pack won the ball back immediately with a powerful scrum on the Leicester put-in.
Keatley and O’Mahony consulted and the outhalf was tasked with kicking for touch, and an attacking lineout. 60 metres from the Tigers’ tryline, Keatley nailed a beauty and put the ball out dead on the 5-metre line. That took serious bottle.
You back me, I’ll back you.
Credit: BT SportThe 30-year-old did not look back after that and repeated that kicking dose later in the game. Given the claustrophobic setting of a packed Welford Road, it was an impressive feat. Add to that his tactical kicking out-of-hand, crisp passing in difficult, slick conditions and seven goal-kicks landed from eight attempted [for 20 points] and this game was a triumph for Keatley.
Bleyendaal’s return will be much welcomed but Keatley is very firmly in possession of that Munster No.10 jersey.
At this stage, we fully expect Keatley to be included in Ireland’s Six Nations squad. In a recent round-table interview, Leinster’s Joey Carbery said he was targeting Ireland’s Six Nations opener against France for his comeback, possibly getting in a PRO14 game beforehand.
The sensible call, and the right call, for Paris is for Keatley to be Johnny Sexton’s deputy in Paris on February 3.
Carbery is a gem of a player but Keatley is erasing doubts and putting himself in the Test frame with each passing performance.
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