NEWS

Rugby ATL’s Conor Keys Ahead Of “Big, Physical” Battle At The Gold Mine

Written by Joe Harvey | Photo by Henry Gomez

At the age of just 24, Conor Keys already has a wealth of rugby experience under his belt. Taking up rugby as a teenager, Conor started out with Barrhaven Scottish before representing the Ottawa Ospreys.

In the years that followed representative rugby became the focus of the abrasive forward, as Eastern Ontario and the Canada Voyageurs came calling. Then while attending and playing for the University of Victoria, Keys pulled on a Canada U20 jersey for the first time, in addition to playing senior men’s rugby for Atlantic Rock.

It was after making his senior debut for Rugby Canada in 2017 against Chile in the Americas Rugby Championship that Keys decided to move abroad to further his rugby. 

Playing first in New Zealand with the Burnside Bombers in Christchurch, Keys then joined professional team Rotherham Titans in England.

After two seasons with Rotherham the Stittsville, Ontario, native was selected by national team coach, Kingsley Jones, to represent Canada at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. 

Playing in two games at the tournament, it was announced shortly after the competition’s conclusion that Keys would be moving to Georgia in order to represent one of Major League Rugby’s newest teams, Rugby ATL.

Photo by Benacci Palloto

Keys played a part in all five of ATL’s five games in the 2020 season before the season was cut short by Covid-1. Keys’ return to Cobb County for the 2021 season has seen the Canadian play a part in five of his team’s games in the 2021 season, including the team’s win over Los Angeles on Saturday evening.

OVERCOMING LA

“When he blew at the last ruck,” Keys said when asked about his emotions at the final on Saturday night, “I was one of the guys in the ruck and I think it was 50/50 whether he was going to give me a penalty for playing the nine or if we were going to get the knock on.

“If you watch it back, you can see me staring at JP Doyle, waiting for him to make a call and I think that was the most nervous I had been in the game. You don’t want to be the guy giving away a penalty right at the end of the game like that in the 83rd minute.

“The feeling after was that we have got something special going on here. We have won some really close games against some really good teams, and I think it was a good moment for our team to say that we have beaten the team topping the other conference, so it has definitely given us a bit of confidence.”

Overcoming LA 17-12 in Georgia, ATL have maintained their place at the top of the East Conference. Their place at the top is by no means stable, with New York just one point behind the southeasterners and an encounter between the two teams coming up in just over a week’s time. 

Having had a two-point lead over New York heading into the encounter with the Giltinis, Keys and his teammates had to dig deep to overcome the men from the west coast. Spending a large portion of the game defending, ATL made an astonishing 263 tackles over the course of 80 minutes.

“We have got to keep going,” Keys said. “We beat LA, but we actually lost a point in hand over New York, so that was a bit of a sobering factor. Yeah, we beat a top team, but we have got six more games left this season.

“They need to be wins if we want to have a chance, especially in the East Conference, so that is our attitude for the next couple of weeks as we approach the end of the season.”

GOING TO THE GOLD MINE

To start their run to the playoffs, ATL will be making their way to Louisiana to play NOLA Gold. For Keys, there will be a reunion between himself and former Atlantic Rock teammate, Kyle Baillie, but the primary focus in the agenda will be consolidating the team’s position at the top of the East.

NOLA comes into the encounter with ATL off the back of a bye and two weeks reflecting on their 29-24 win over the Utah Warriors at the Gold Mine. So far in their history, the teams have met three times, once in a preseason game which ATL won 34-33, then once in 2020 where, again, ATL edged the game 22-10 and once this season where Scott Lawrence’s team bested Nate Osbourne’s, this time 38-28.

But, despite this early show of dominance over the team from the south, Keys says that he is more than aware of his opposition’s desire to be victorious on Saturday night. 

“We have played NOLA three times now and they have been crazy close games,” Keys said. “Knowing a few of the guys on NOLA’s team and having talked after the last game, they really want this one. They are a team full of really great players, so I think going down to the Gold Mine is going to be a bit of a different game.

“It is going to be a huge challenge, definitely in the forward pack. Now there is a lot of video for them to watch. When we played them the first time, there wasn’t a lot of material, now they have probably seen everything we have done this year, so we need to be careful now on how we change things and are not too predictable. It is going to be a big, physical battle.”

HOW TO WATCH

To watch Rugby ATL’s encounter with NOLA Gold this weekend, viewers in the USA can watch on the CBS Sports Network, and fans outside of the USA can watch for free on The Rugby Network.