For the first five seasons of his Test career Hugo Keenan hardly seemed to miss a game, culminating in last year’s Lions tour when he delivered the defining, series-winning last-minute try in the second Test. He was seemingly indestructible, and Mr Consistency.Yet next Saturday at a sold-out Sydney Football Stadium, Keenan will not only play his first Test since the Lions series finale in the same city against the same opponents, but will represent Ireland for the first time since the 2025 Six Nations finale in Rome when scoring in the 22-17 win over Italy.After the Lions expedition, he underwent surgery for a pre-existing hip issue. A prolonged period of rehabilitation sidelined him for the autumn international window and then, during Ireland’s pre-Six Nations training camp in the Algarve, he suffered a fractured thumb.“I’m itching to get back into the green jersey,” says Keenan. “There’s nothing like representing your country. It was something I’ve always dreamed of. I’ve probably said it to you before, that I never thought I’d get to do it once.“I’ve 46 [caps] now, but when you’re out of the game for six months and then you miss another Six Nations, and you’re out of the team for a while, you do have your doubts. You do wonder, is there going to be another chance? And you never know what’s sort of around the corner for you.“It’s definitely made me hungrier to get back into the squad and, yeah, buzzing just to hopefully get an opportunity to play and wear that green jersey again.”The broken thumb, caused by a clash of hands at the end of a non-contact backs drill, was harder to take.“Generally, the rule of thumb for a broken bone is six weeks to heal and the Six Nations is seven weeks and you’re always thinking, ‘oh, I can scrape a week or two off that’. But there’s no cheating mother nature at the same time.”Ireland's Jack Crowley is tackled by France's Nicolas Depoortère in the Stade De France on February 5th, 2026. Photograph: Billy Stickland/©INPHO He admits Ireland’s opening loss in Paris was his hardest watch.“It was easier watching when the group’s going well. I loved being over in Twickenham for that England game. I loved seeing that Scotland performance and getting a Triple Crown. Watching the trajectory of the group was cool to see.“I very much enjoyed seeing the success of it, but I would have rather been out there as well.”Being able to bring some fresh energy for the business end of Leinster’s season was a consolation – especially after missing the URC final win over the Bulls a year before – although the Champions Cup final defeat to Bordeaux Bègles “still hurts”.Back in the same hotel as the Lions used last summer, both when he was stricken by sickness before the Waratahs game and before losing the third Test, has revived good and bad memories.“It’s always a cool place to tour. There’s always a lot of Irish over here. My brother’s living in Sydney. I hadn’t seen him for a year, [there’s] still a few friends knocking about and cousins a bit further afield, so there’s a good buzz and it’s got a bit of everything, doesn’t it? So yeah, it’s good to be back.”Keenan was referring to his younger brother Andrew, who followed his girlfriend to Australia two years ago.“I don’t know if my parents are going to make it over this time. It’s a long way to go. I think everybody committed fully to the trip last year, six weeks over here following it.Hugo Keenan celebrates scoring for the Lions in the second Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2025. Photograph: Tom Maher/©INPHO “It’s obviously an expensive cost and big, big trip and big travel, and my schoolmates came over and friends and cousins. So, we’ll be relying on the local Irish in Sydney here a bit more and from chatting to people here, we’re still expecting a big crowd of Irish behind us.”His younger brother is 6ft 7in and, accordingly, was a good basketball player and was Irish champion in spike ball, a two-a-side game played on a small, trampoline-style net.“He is a larger-than-life character and always loves the craic,” says Keenan. “Rugby probably would have been good for him when he got older, 18 or 19, but he was never really too pushed.“The older brother [Robert] played but he had a broken arm and a few dislocated shoulders playing for UCD in his last year or two and it was interfering with work in general, just life.“He had pure sprinter speed. He won the All-Ireland 4x100m relay in fifth year, and then the same team went back in sixth year and dropped the baton in the final when they were on track to break the All-Ireland record.“I won’t name the other three lads. I actually know exactly who they are. I won’t name who [dropped it]. Robert was on the last 100 metres and he didn’t get to touch it. It was the day before the Leaving Cert as well.”[ Ireland v Australia: Easterby confident ‘unbelievable’ Sheehan can lead from front in Doris’s absenceOpens in new window ]Robert lives in London. “He’s working in private equity, so he’s a smart lad.”His sister Naomi is a paediatric doctor in Temple Street. “Fair play to her. It’s nearly more of a vocation. It’s a tough, tough gig, but she loves it. She’s great at it. They’re all hard workers. They’re all ambitious and we’re very close.“We don’t see each other as a collective too much, but my brother got to travel over last summer and my sister was working, so she missed it all. She was a bit jealous, but she’s still in Dublin, so I see her a lot and, yeah, good group.”