'Exceptional' Keenan excelling under pressure

Hugo Keenan has benefited from pressure on his place and it's showing in his performances, says Ireland attack coach Mike Catt.

The Leinster full-back has made the Ireland 15 shirt his own over the last two years, earning 19 caps since his debut in late 2020.

The 25-year-old filled the void left by Rob Kearney and was seen as a dependable, solid defender with good positional sense.

With head coach Andy Farrell having tried out various back-up options like Jordan Larmour, Jacob Stockdale and others like Andrew Conway, Keith Earls also hovering, it was Ulster’s Michael Lowry who emerged as a contender with a two-try salvo off the bench on his international debut against Italy.

That appears to have stirred something within Keenan, who was unlucky not to get the official man of the match award in the 32-15 win over England.

His touchdown last week was his sixth try in green and he made 117 metres off 18 carries, breaking four tackles across a busy afternoon.

"The nice thing is Mikey Lowry has been playing exceptionally well for Ulster and all of a sudden, there's a bit of competition there, with Jacob [Stockdale] obviously not there because he's injured at the moment," said Catt when asked about Keenan’s form ahead of tomorrow's Guinness Six Nations game against Scotland (4.45pm).

"It's always nice to have that competition in the team and I think we've got that in the centres, the wings, the back three. What it does is really push individuals to go to another level.

"Hugo is an incredible professional, he understands the game, is curious about the game, what he wants to learn and how he wants to learn it.

"He has taken that challenge on and like we saw last week, he was exceptional."

James Lowe celebrates with Hugo Keenan (15)

James Lowe was another man impressed with his team-mate's efforts in Twickenham.

"He’s got an old head on him doesn’t he," said the New Zealand-born winger.

"We call him Vanilla Hugo because he’s so plain but he’s a great dude, man.

"His attention to detail…playing with him, it takes a lot of the pressure off myself and Bomber [Andrew Conway] because he does a lot of the monotonous, boring stuff throughout the week to provide for us.

"He looks at all the kicking clips, the kickers.

"He looks at their kick-offs so when it comes back, where will we attack, who they kick off, who chases, who’s in the back field.

"He does a lot of that sort of stuff and then he just tells me what to do and hopefully it comes off."

A notable aspect of Ireland’s play this campaign, which has yielded 20 tries in four games, is the ability and willingness of the entire team to play heads-up rugby, with forwards and backs interchanging as required.

"Yeah, everybody is a ball player, everybody is connected," said the England World Cup-winning centre.

"The attack is 15 players every single time we have the ball so we are very comfortable with the progress Bundee [Aki] has made, Garry Ringrose, Hugo Keenan, standing in those positions.

"It’s almost been seamless for them. It’s just a way that we can play a quick game of rugby and play at a speed that we want to play and with an attack we want to play with.

"Ultimately, it gives Johnny [Sexton] or our 10s an ability to take a breath sometimes and not be reliant on them all the time.

"It's worked, so far, really, really well but it's something that we will get better at and the guys will become more comfortable the more we do it."

Catt also confirmed that there were no late injury concerns following this morning's captain's run at the Aviva.

"Yeah, all good," he said. "The sun is shining outside, it's Patrick's weekend, so it's all good."