Hugo Keenan: Leinster disappointment parked for World Cup

Hugo Keenan doesn't expect the pain of Leinster's Champions Cup and URC failures to seep into Ireland's World Cup preparations later this year.

The Ireland squad are on a down-week after completing the first two-week block of their Rugby World Cup training camp, with just over four weeks to go until they face Italy in their opening warm-up game on 5 August at the Aviva Stadium.

With half of the 42-player squad coming from Leinster, there were concerns that the province's end of season form would sew some doubt into the Irish camp, after they were beaten for the second year in a row by La Rochelle in the Champions Cup final in May.

The province ended the season trophyless again, losing to eventual champions Munster in the the semi-final of the BKT United Rugby Championship, with Keenan admitting the Munster players in the Irish group have naturally bounced back to camp "on a high".

And while he says the focus is on Ireland rather than Leinster for the next few months, he believes he and some of his teammates will be using their disappointment as fuel.

"It's tough, because three weeks or four weeks of holidays isn't going to wipe the slate clean for you," Keenan said.

"It's obviously a lot less of a touchy subject than it was a couple of minutes after the final whistle, but we're still hugely disappointed. It was gutting, and something I won't get over for a while, but it's something you have to use as a positive to motivate yourself more, to make yourself better and the teammates around you better, and take from losing a final to push on."

The 27-year-old pointed to last summer's Test series win against the All Blacks as an example, when Leinster had again been beaten by La Rochelle in the Champions Cup final only a few weeks