As Ireland prepare to face Italy in Rome in the final round of this year’s Six Nations, Dublin native and former Leinster out-half, Ian McKinley, says he’ll be decked out in blue on Saturday.
Despite being born and bred in Ireland, McKinley ended up playing nine times for the Azzurri after a remarkable turn of events early in his career led the out-half to ultimately switch to playing for Italy.
Having moved through the ranks at Leinster, his playing days seemed over just as they were getting started when an inadvertent stray boot led to him losing the sight in his left eye in 2010.
After retiring at the age of 21, a trip to Italy to coach saw him eventually return to action playing in close to the bottom rung of the ladder in Italian domestic rugby before climbing through the ranks and eventually playing nine times for his adopted nation including three times against Ireland.
It was the Italian Rugby Federation who helped him explore the possibility of wearing protective goggles in games which McKinley credits with giving him a second chance to play the game he loves.
“Of course, when Ireland are playing any other nation, I will very much have my green hat on,” McKinley explains when asked who he will be supporting on Saturday.
“I get called a traitor by my mates all the time. I was born and bred in Ireland and came through the age-grade system here.
“However, when Ireland play Italy, I put my blue hat on. It’s honestly not to just try and be different, it’s just that’s the jersey I wore at full international level, they’re the union that supported me when I needed help with my goggles and gave me a second chance, so my foot is very much in camp Italy.”
McKinley now lives in the village of Bellaghy in Co Derry where he also coaches and does punditry work. The 35-year-old regularly travels back to Italy to coach and has kept a keen eye on the progress of his former international side.
“I think Italy have come on a lot, particularly in the last campaign it was really evident progress had been made.” McKinley explains.
“They had two wins and a draw in last year’s tournament which is one of their best results, so that is a hard act to follow and this was always going to be a difficult campaign in some ways.
“This year, they had a really good chance against Scotland when they were tied 19-19. Two soft tries were given away so they’ll be disappointed to have let that one get away.”
This campaign, an impressive win by the Azzurri over Wales was followed by chastening defeats to France and England.
Gonzalo Quesada’s side meets an Ireland squad fresh from a confidence shattering 42-27 home defeat to France albeit they are still holding onto slim hope of achieving a historic third successive Six Nations title.
“The (Italian) guys are past the stage of wanting a pat on the back for a decent performance. They’re not in it for those types of plaudits anymore. They want to win against big teams and a statement win against Ireland would mean a huge amount to them.
“There will be pressure on both teams to produce a performance, but more importantly get a win because that’s what it’s all about.
“It should be an exciting game because Italy have some quality in the backline with the likes of Tommaso Menoncello. He is a real danger man for them and he burst onto the scene, scoring his first try at the age of 19 and still has even more potential to improve as he’s still only 22. There are a lot of English and French clubs after him, but they’ve tied him down with one of the biggest contracts in Italian Rugby.
“Then you’ve got his centre partner, Juan Ignacio Brex. The ‘Brex-acello’ partnership as people have started calling it, is a pretty formidable duo in midfield.
“Ange Capuozzo is in there as well. He plays in an incredible Toulouse backline and is a fantastic broken field runner.
“It’s funny because with Italy it has historically been the forwards people talk about, but the backline are now really capable of firing shots.”
As for the Irish side, the debate over options for the ten jersey has been raging on, with Jack Crowley taking on the mantle this week. McKinley thinks Ireland fans should consider themselves lucky to have at least a couple of viable options for the coveted position.
“It’s a hot topic at the minute who should start at ten and I completely understand the initial decision to go with Sam Prendergast because his performance levels for his club have been outstanding.” McKinley explains.
“You could argue (Jack) Crowley has a bit more money in the bank because he has done everything asked of him and he has definitely put his hand up on several occasions.
“They are two very different players who will bring their own style to the game. Ireland are in such a fortunate position to have both of them.
“For the foreseeable future you could see the jersey toing and froing quite a bit between them a bit like we saw happen with (David) Humphreys and (Ronan) O’Gara and then O’Gara and (Johnny) Sexton.
“It was really nip and tuck between those guys and the only difference here is the age profile of the guys means the battle for the ten jersey could go on for some time which is actually quite a good position to be in for Irish rugby.”