‘Yeah, he does give us a wee bit of extra impetus’ – Sevens head coach James Topping gives his verdict on Hugo Keenan

The Ireland full-back’s inclusion in the Olympic squad is also giving his team “extra impetus”, according to men’s head coach James Topping. Keenan’s decision to temporarily switch codes for the Olympics means he missed the end of Leinster’s URC season and will also be absent for Ireland’s tour to South Africa.

Keenan linked up with the sevens panel for the Grand Final in Madrid last month, where he scored his first try on his return to sevens in their defeat to New Zealand.

“Yeah, he does give us a wee bit of extra impetus. I think definitely other teams look at him and are wary of him whenever they see him playing, even the last few tournaments,” Topping said yesterday.

“I also think that it’s something which improves our team dynamic, which is an important thing. I’m not picking the best players the whole time. If we just had seven Terry Kennedys playing, we probably wouldn’t win many games. We need guys that can win balls in the air, guys who can make turnovers, who can make tackles, and Hugo fits in with the sort of personnel we require in the team.”

With Connacht’s Andrew Smith the other current 15s player returning to sevens for the Olympics, Topping admits his biggest concern was whether their inclusions would affect team morale.

“Yeah, probably my biggest worry was, would it disrupt the team dynamic? Would there be a bit of pushback from players?

“I had no doubt around the attitude and the competence of those two players in playing sevens, but my concern was there had been guys going well this year, we’d made every quarter-final in the world series and got lots of medals this year, no golds, unfortunately.

“So there was that thought of, ‘Will there be pushback from a lot of players?’ There wasn’t, which is one thing. And then there is the thought that listen, if an international player like Keenan comes up to you and says, ‘I’ll give this a go,’ it’s very hard for me to say, ‘No, I don’t want to give you a chance of going to the Olympics’.

“There’s been a push on my side to select those two guys, but it’s not their fault Hugo is playing for Ireland and Andrew is playing for Connacht.

“They’ve made a sacrifice to come back to give it a shot, so the rest of the guys are 100pc behind it, even before they came in.”

Ireland women’s head coach Allan Temple-Jones, meanwhile, says Vikki Wall was “really close” to making the Olympic squad.

Meath’s two-time All-Ireland football medal winner was not included after taking up rugby sevens last September in an attempt to make it into the squad for Paris. Temple-Jones believes Wall still has a future in the sevens game.

“Yeah, absolutely. We’ve already had conversations with Vikki around that, she may have certain obligations to fulfil in certain places, and absolutely, we definitely want to get her back in and see where this can go.

“She’s an amazing athlete. She has a very high ceiling from an athletic performance perspective. She’s really done well and she’s really close.”

Captain Lucy Rock sustained a hamstring injury in the Los Angeles tournament in March, which has sidelined her since, but Temple-Jones says he’s confident she will be fit for Paris.

“Yeah, for sure, as it stands at the moment, she is progressing as we expect. We’re looking absolutely to have her in Paris.

“We really believe we want to shoot for gold. If you shoot for a medal, often you miss, but we want to go there with high ambition and be as prepared as we can to shoot for a gold medal, right?

“It’s possible. We know this group can do it, so we’re looking forward to the opportunity to put our best foot forward.”