'I knew it would be the closest thing to a Test match I would ever feel'

SIMON KEOGH STILL looks back on 2009 with mixed emotions. He was there when Leinster beat Munster on that famous day in Croke Park, but in some ways, he feels as though he wasn’t. As Leinster booked their place in the Heineken Cup final with a statement 25-6 win over their fierce rivals at the home of the GAA, Keogh was the only member of the matchday squad who didn’t get a run out.

Those memories have come flooding back recently as Leinster prepare to return to Croke Park, with Leo Cullen’s side hosting Northampton Saints for a Champions Cup semi-final clash on the northside this coming Saturday.

Cian Healy is the only member of the current squad who lined out in 2009, and back then, the opportunity to play at Croke Park felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity for those who weren’t lucky enough to have been involved when Ireland held home games at GAA HQ through 2007-2009.

Hence Keogh was so determined to be part of the squad who took on Munster for that memorable Heineken Cup semi-final. It didn’t work out the way he wanted, and the scars of that season have never left – just last week he had work done on a troublesome knee which threatened to rule him out of that Heineken Cup run.

The damage occurred during a game at Edinburgh, the winger getting his foot caught in the turf as he moved to chase an Isa Nacewa crossfield kick. Come the week of the Munster game, Keogh found himself lacing up for a fitness test in an empty Croke Park.

“I remember the pain I was in, but I just wanted to be involved,” says Keogh, who came through at Leinster before playing over 130 games for Harlequins, returning to his home province in 2008.

Simon Keogh playing for Leinster in 2009.

“Two days before the game Jason Cowman had Gary Brown chasing me to see if he can catch me while I ran half the length of the field, and I just about made it.

“It was strange. It’s kind of eerie stepping into Croke Park because you don’t realize how big it is until you step into the middle of the field. It has that kind of Colosseum feel to it. It just feels vast.”

Keogh was named on the bench but held reservations about whether his knee would hold up. Those fears were parked as the team bus wound its way along a new journey from Donnybrook to Drumcondra. It didn’t take long for the players on board to gain an appreciation for the size of the occasion.

As you drove from Donnybrook all the way through to Croke Park there were people lining the streets, shouting and screaming, and I knew it was the closest thing to a Test match that I would ever feel, certainly.

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“And that’s the thing. I knew my opportunity to play international rugby was dying away. I was in my late twenties and I’d played at ‘A’ level but I hadn’t played an international Test, so that was the closest thing I’ll ever experience to it.

“When you came out onto the pitch just after doing the warm up, all you could see was a sea of red and blue divided into sections. You couldn’t see any empty seats, all you could see was the colors, and it was loud.”

The next bit has been told countless times and will be revisited many more across the next week. In front of a world record crowd for a club rugby game, Leinster summoned a performance which changed the shape of Irish rugby.

“We certainly played with a different level of intensity on the day. Obviously Brian [O’Driscoll] was there but Rocky [Elsom] was like a man amongst boys, bowling people up. He was someone who was in the right place at the right time for the right team.

“But if you look back at the team, the names we had, Shane Horgan, Brian O’Driscoll, Leo Cullen, they’re all leaders. Shane Jennings, Chris Whitaker, you can go through the whole list of players. It was a team that was full of really experienced and real quality players.”

It was also, famously, the day Johnny Sexton told the world his time was now.

Before Felipe Contepomi lay crumpled on the grass, Sexton had been warming a seat alongside Keogh.

“The two of us were kind of shaking and feeling nervous, because the most nervous you are as a player is when you’re on the bench, because you’re watching it and then all of a sudden you’re thrown into it.

“I remember it being, ‘Oh, that injury to Felipe is serious’ and then all of a sudden – ‘Johnny, you’re on! As a player you just get a rush of adrenaline and a rush of nerves. You’re straight into it.

The game saw a world record attendance for a club rugby game.

“The first thing he had to do was take over a kick because Felipe had injured his ACL, and a sign of the man, he went straight on and kicked it straight over the sticks. Then typical Johnny, he was combative straight away. It was brilliant. Obviously there’s a lot spoken about a particular moment, Johnny standing over Ronan [O’Gara], but it was kind of taken up with the emotion of the occasion, the emotion of being a do-or-die time for Leinster.”

As Leinster rammed home their superiority and began to pull clear, Keogh felt his emotions shift. Initially concerned about his knee, he began to realise how much he wanted to be part of such an historic occasion. The call never came. As the clock wound down Devin Toner got a late shout to enter the action, leaving Keogh as the only member of the matchday 23 who didn’t get any gametime.

“Afterwards, you almost feel apologetic. People are coming up to you saying ‘well done’, and you feel like they did as much as you did, even though that’s not necessarily the case having been with the team and training with the team and helping them to prepare, but you feel hugely disappointed and almost sorry that you didn’t participate.

“People are congratulating you and you’re saying sorry you didn’t get on, especially for your family, who made the effort to go and you ended up being in the same position as them, watching the game for the full 80 minutes.

“You wished you’d made a contribution to it because as a player when you win something and you haven’t actually taken to the field, regardless of whether you’re on the bench, it doesn’t actually mean as much to you. And that’s certainly the case for me. The celebrations are there, but there’s a little bit of flatness to it, because you didn’t actually contribute on the pitch.

I would have loved to play that day, but I didn’t, and that’s the disappointing thing. When you look back at it, it’s ‘Unused subs: Simon Keogh.’”

That particular memory is tinged with regret but Keogh, who retired the following year, still looks back on his Leinster days fondly. It didn’t all go to plan, but he was part of the group who set the ball rolling for a province who 15 years later, are chasing their fifth European star.

“It was groundbreaking, wasn’t it? Munster were consistently at the top table and we weren’t, so that was the opportunity to turn the tables and there was a feeling of it was now or never, certainly for that group of players.

“Sometimes kids are wearing the Leinster top and it has the stars on it, and they might be aware that I played rugby,” says Keogh, who also didn’t get on in the subsequent defeat of Leicester Tigers in the final.

“And I say to them I helped make that first star, but I’d be careful with my words. I don’t say I made that star, because I was only a part of it. When you go back through it and watch the final you didn’t see me because I was on the bench.

“So it’s a little bit of disappointment when you see it, but at the same time, to be part of that group that helped build that star, the first star on the chest, it was special.”