ABOUT 18 MONTHS AGO Andrew Porter considered a swap deal. There was an offer on the table from Leo Cullen and Andy Farrell. Move to No1 and become a number one, a starter, no longer a sub. At tighthead he was rated and Porter loved the position. Cullen and Farrell loved having him there, too, but there was an issue.
They already had Tadhg Furlong in situ and while Porter’s rise was rapid to the extent that Warren Gatland picked him for the 2021 Lions tour to South Africa, deep down Porter knew that he could become the second best tighthead in the world but still only be the second best tighthead in Leinster. “No one is better than Tadhg,” Porter says.
That influenced his decision, that and the prospect of going back to his roots. As a kid, he was a loosehead, good enough to make it to the Irish Under 20 side in that position and it was just after playing in a junior World Cup final that he made the shift across the front row. No one knew it then but a return ticket had been booked.
“I broke my foot just before the Lions tour and that was when I thought things over, thought about where I was in my career,” Porter says. “I wasn’t pushed to make a quick decision but the coaches kept telling me they wanted us both on the pitch at the same time. ‘We don’t want you competing for a spot,’ they said to me.
“But then in my head, I was thinking: ‘look, I’m going to have to compete with Cian Healy and a load of quality looseheads, now’. So that was my reservation at the time. I considered everything; saw it as a challenge and another thing to overcome.”
To say he’s won the battle without any setbacks is editing things a little. There have been issues, tough days in Twickenham against England during last year’s Six Nations, in Paris against France, in Eden Park against New Zealand in the first Test of Ireland’s summer tour.
After that Auckland game he was asked if he was worried that the increasing penalty count going against Ireland could become a regular theme: “No,” he replied matter-of-factly.
One small word. One big statement.
It says a lot about Porter that he backed up his assertion, delivering a man of the match display in the second Test, scoring two tries, dominating the All Blacks scrum, helping Ireland record their first away win on New Zealand soil.
“When you play prop, you have to always back yourself. It is constant challenge.”
In Dunedin – the turning point of that tour – he rose to it, diving deep into his copybook to recall what it was he disliked most as a tighthead, seeking to impersonate the toughest looseheads he ever scrummaged against. By match night he was ready, his homework done.
“We have incredible players in our squad, guys that are just natural leaders.
“I remember that week Tadhg led a meeting and made everyone rethink everything about what happened in the First Test; he was just such a good motivator.
“The thing with Tadhg is he just instils a lot of confidence in players. In terms of the scrum, Tadhg is like Mike Ross. He is a scrum nerd, he loves it; and it was incredible how we were able to turn that around in the space of a week.
“That is why I am excited about this week seeing what we can put out there.”
Ah this week.
The Springboks are in town with ‘their bomb squad’. If the All Blacks is considered the acid test for a team then South Africa and their front row is the trickiest exam available for a prop.
“It just comes down to grit and determination at the end of it. This is where you want to test yourself as an individual and as a team, against the best in the world. They are world champions for a reason.”
He’s asked what specifically makes them so hard, reminded how they have a policy of letting the ball stay in the scrum for as long as possible, their way of sapping the energy out of the opposition. The French are like that, too, he says.
“It’s like who can out-last who. It’s a mental battle as well as a physical one in there and do you know what, we are looking forward to that (mental battle) because it’s a psychological thing when you’re leaving the ball in the scrum, you’re basically saying ‘Okay, try and have a go.’”
Big test then. His toughest yet.
- Originally published at 6:50am