WE’RE ALL GUILTY of getting drawn to the bright new things on offer at times, shunning the familiar and brilliant for the exciting.
But while the precociousness of youth has been important to Leinster and Ireland this season, the influence of the hard-edged veterans is utterly invaluable.
The wing, where acceleration and agility is valued highest, tends to see a greater influx of youth than other areas and so Fergus McFadden has constantly had to work hard to maintain his course and avoid getting swept away.
Last season, the international spent five long months on the sidelines with a severe thigh injury and could only watch on as Adam Byrne and Rory O’Loughlin made hay and earned caps of their own.
This campaign has been a breakthrough year for Jordan Larmour and Barry Daly. Yet McFadden has also hit on some of the best form of his career, and his fiery affinity for off-the-ball, non-traditional winger’s work again hoisted him firmly within Joe Schmidt’s Six Nations squad — his selection justified immediately during the epic push for victory in Paris.
“It is important to take note of talent coming through,” says the 31-year-old of his upper hand in the wrestle for jerseys.
“But for me it’s about trying to bring what I have brought to games before and to evolve as well, learning from these young guys coming through.
The game has changed over the past few years in different ways and you have to keep evolving or you get left behind. So I would like to think someone like Jordan coming in would learn a little bit off me as well with his mentality, the way he attacks and does certain things, it is just good for the group.”
“(Competition) just means whoever puts on the jersey, given the week it is, needs to step up or you might not see any game-time for a few weeks. It adds more incentive to those who get the opportunities to play particularly and the guys who have got opportunities even last week or during that Six Nations block really stepped up.”
McFadden holidayed in Dubai with Jonathan Sexton, Sean Cronin and Joey Carbery last week. Although he didn’t feature in Ireland’s final two Six Nations matches, you can be certain he wasn’t wanting for feisty energy in training when it came to preparing the starters for Tests against Scotland and England. So his post-Grand Slam and Champions Cup quarter-final rest was hard earned. The mental effort required to maintain the pace of a Schmidt camp for the best part of two months shouldn’t be underestimated.
“I had a down week, which I certainly needed after being in that Six Nations block for the eight weeks. So from a mental perspective as much as a physical one getting that break was nice, so that will stand to me coming into this business end of the season for sure.”
Refreshed and ready for the big end-of-season push, McFadden will face Benetton this week and will be one of the key voices ramping preparations up for the visit of Scarlets to the Aviva Stadium.
It’s a far cry from the days of injury and rehab last season, a frustrating time that every rugby player will experience at one point or another. However, McFadden is just as tenacious in his work off the field as he is on it, and met any doubts with a response and more work.
“I’d like to think that resilience is probably one of my stronger qualities over my career.
“Coming back, even for that Wasps game (quarter-final) last year – I got an opportunity off the bench, played well enough – that’s enough to justify the tough days that go with it for me.
“Sometimes when you get knocked down, it’s about how you react when you come back and I thought I did well on that front anyway for the last year.
I think every professional sportsperson, and definitely rugby players, question themselves on a daily basis with different things.
“Whether it’s mistakes in training and being annoyed about that, or selection doesn’t go your way one week. So it’s a constant mental problem but it’s about managing that and going back to managing the stuff that you can control.
“You can’t control how someone else is going to play when they have their opportunity, but you can just prep yourself as well as possible so that when you get yours, and I have thankfully this season, I’d like to think I’m good enough to keep my place.”
