DURING THE WEEK Andrew Porter went into the Ireland squad gym in Abbotstown and stuck on a few tunes, only to be quickly put in his place.
“Within a minute it got turned off, probably less than a minute,” Porter explains. “I get reined in fairly quickly around here.”
The offending sounds? Heavy metal. “The classics; Pantera, Metallica, anything,” he continues. “Sometimes it’s a bit heavier than Metallica, it’s a bit of death metal.
“I have my own process on game day. I try not to get into the heavier music too early because then I just get amped up too soon.”
It’s an interest Porter shares with fellow prop Finlay Bealham. The two front rowers have been in demand off the pitch recently, with Netflix camera crews following them around to get a glimpse at their lives outside camp.
“I’m not sure if they’re having much fun when they follow me around,” Porter says.
“All I do is bring them to the gym and stuff. It was an exciting day for me but I’m sure it wasn’t for them. It’s been interesting having them in camp. I don’t know, we’re probably not giving them as much access as other teams but they’re still getting good content, I hope. I’m looking forward to seeing how the whole thing will turn out.
“I’ve seen the Formula 1 one (series) but I only recently started watching that. It was when we started getting filmed so I would know what to say more than anything.
“It does show people what actually goes on behind the scenes and it shows maybe a personal side of rugby and it lets people see that we’re all still human at the end of the day and behind the curtain of game day and stuff.
I think it’s important to show people who we are as well as the work that goes into big performances.”
The two players are certainly providing plenty of highlights on the pitch – Porter carrying his impressive 2022 form into the Six Nations while Bealham has excelled at tighthead in the absence of Tadhg Furlong.
“He’s done incredibly well. He’s an incredible trainer and that shows in the games as well. All the work he puts into training comes to fruition in games. It’s big shoes to fill with Tadhg out at the moment and he’s stepped up incredibly well.
“He’s an incredible scrummager, incredible ball player. You saw the try Hugo Keenan scored against France, I’m fairly sure Finlay designed that play himself. He’s an incredible bloke on and off the pitch really.
You try create a relationship with each other off the pitch, so you can do well on the pitch as well. That’s why we realised we have so much in common and then sure reviewing and looking at training becomes a lot easier when you’re with someone with the same mindset as you.
“And then sure on the pitch, you’re trying to get that feel so it feels more natural. Obviously you’re used to scrummaging with Tadhg in Leinster and obviously with Dan (Sheehan) and Rónan (Kelleher) as well.
“When another tighthead comes in, you might feel the weight is kinda going a different way on a different foot as well, but it’s about getting your reps in training and getting used to that as well.”
The pair start in the Ireland front row for the third straight game today, with Andy Farrell’s squad taking on Italy in Rome. The Azzurri have just one losing bonus point to their name but have shown signs of growth across their defeats to France and England.
“I know they haven’t got the results they wanted, but you can see in their pack they are incredibly dangerous,” Porter adds.
“In their set-piece especially, they’ve got an incredible amount of Treviso players playing for them. You have seen how well Treviso have been doing this season, they have taken a few big scalps. But yeah, they have evolved into this different team. They are more mobile and they are very dangerous in attack and they are very good in defence as well.
“They’ve been doing incredibly well in their set-piece as well this year, so we have really got to do our best this weekend.”
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