Ian McKinley (born 4 December 1989) is a retired Irish-born, Italian rugby union player. He played at fly-half and he represented Italy on 9 occasions.

Career

In 2011, after playing 6 times for Irish province Leinster, McKinley was forced to retire from rugby union after losing the sight in his left eye. After his retirement, he moved to Italy to work as a coach for junior sides. Despite the blindness in one eye, McKinley made a return to rugby in 2014 in Italy using specially manufactured goggles, firstly with Leonorso in a regional third division match, in which McKinley scored 28 points, and then with Viadana on a two-year contract in the

National Championship of Excellence The Top10, known as the Peroni Top10 for sponsorship reasons, and formerly Top 12, is Italy's top level professional men's rugby union competition. The Top 10 is run by Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR) and is contested by 10 teams as of the 2019� ...

, which, in turn, led to him being signed by another Italian side,

Zebre Zebre Parma (, meaning "Zebras") are an Italian professional rugby union team competing in the United Rugby Championship and EPCR competitions from the 2012–13 season. They are based in Parma (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. They are operated by the ...

as Fly-half cover for the

2015 Rugby World Cup The 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was onl ...

and

2016 Six Nations Championship The 2016 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2016 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by The Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 17th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship. I ...

. Shortly afterwards, McKinley was signed by Treviso ahead of the

2016–17 Pro12 The 2016–17 Pro12 (also known as the ''Guinness Pro12'' for sponsorship reasons) was the sixteenth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League, and the seventh with a four-country format. It was the ...

season. He played with Treviso until

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

. Since McKinley never played a game for Ireland before his first retirement, having spent three years in Italian rugby made him eligible to represent Italy on the international stage. Italy's head coach Conor O'Shea included McKinley in his squad for the 2017 Summer Tests, but decided not to field him in any game. On 11 November 2017, however, Ian McKinley played his first international game for Italy, in an

Autumn Internationals The autumn internationals, November internationals, end-of-year tests, and spring internationals/tour for Australia and New Zealand, are men's rugby union Test matches that are contested around November each year. It is organised by World Rugby. Te ...

test match against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

, subbed in after 62 minutes for

Carlo Canna Carlo Canna (born 25 August 1992) is an Italian rugby union player, who regularly plays Fly-half or Inside Centre and plays for Fiamme Oro Rugby in the Top10. Biography Canna, who grew up in Benevento, followed in his father's footsteps, and jo ...

. Italy won that game 19–10, with McKinley scoring the last goal kick.

References

External links

Ireland U20 Profile
* * Living people 1989 births Rugby union players from Dublin (city) Irish rugby union players Leinster Rugby players Rugby union fly-halves Zebre Parma players Benetton Rugby players Italy international rugby union players University College Dublin R.F.C. players People educated at St Columba's College, Dublin Sportspeople with a vision impairment Irish rugby union coaches Naturalised citizens of Italy Italian rugby union players Irish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Naturalised sports competitors {{ireland-rugbyunion-bio-stub