Conor McKee credits former school and club coach for giving him belief in Ulster dream
Ulster scrum-half Conor McKee has praised his school and club coach for giving him the belief to pursue a career in professional rugby.
McKee is the fourth generation of his family to play for Ulster after his dad Kevin, grandfather Dermot and great grandfather Harold, but it was Sullivan Upper and Ballynahinch coach Adam Craig that persuaded the pivot to keep going during some bumps on his path to earning the No.9 shirt.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s Irish derby against Connacht in the United Rugby Championship, Mckee said: “Adam is always someone that believed in me even when I thought professional rugby wasn’t possible. I remember him telling me when I was leaving school that Doaky (Nathan Doak) and me would be the Ulster nines for potentially 10 years to come.
“I remember thinking ‘is that true?’ I've sort of stuck at it and it's looking more likely now. For that to be the scenario at the minute is class and he's always been someone that's backed me.
“Going to Hinch as well, I've been working with him for the last three years, he's still pushing me.”
Reflecting on the early days of his career, McKee said he never thought about professional rugby as an option until later in his teenage years.
“I started playing rugby at CI, that's where I played my mini-rugby, then I went to Sullivan and played right through there,” he said.
“Professional rugby was never something that was really on my radar until I was maybe 17 or 18 when I played for the Ulster Schools, and then was brought into Irish schools that spring.
“Then I was planning on going to university across the water to go to Loughborough, but I had a chat with Kieran Campbell who was the academy manager at the time, and he said, ‘look, we think there's a future here for you if you'd like to stay’.
“I chose to do that, and it was a tricky period because I stayed and was involved in the Irish under-20s and then Covid hit.
“I wasn't really sure what was going to happen, but I had another year of ‘20s’, and it went quite well that year and was brought into the academy then.
“I suppose along that time I was playing a lot of club rugby. I played three years of Queen's as I said, and they were probably three of the most enjoyable years of my career so far,” added McKee.
“Then three years at Ballynahinch where we were competing in 1A every week, which is a serious standard of rugby.
“That brought me up until the start of this year when John Cooney has moved on and there's a bit more room. I've moved up the pecking order, and I've tried to make the most of that opportunity and I think I'm doing alright.”
Ulster have been rocked by the news that Rob Balocoune will be sidelined for approximately three months due to an elbow injury picked up in the Ireland game against Scotland in the Six Nations, while Harry Sheridan has been given a three-game ban – reduced to two if he completes a World Rugby coaching intervention programme – after his red card in Edinburgh.
Ulster: Michael Lowry, Werner Kok, Jacob Stockdale, Ben Carson, Zac Ward, Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Angus Bell, Tom Stewart, Scott Wilson, Iain Henderson (CAPT), Joe Hopes, David McCann, Marcus Rea, Juarno Augustus; Replacements: Rob Herring, Sam Crean, Tom O’Toole, Matthew Dalton, Bryn Ward, Conor McKee, Jonny Scott, Ethan McIlroy.