STUART McCLOSKEY, FOR so long the man who couldn’t force his way into Test contention, is now Ireland’s Mr Reliable. It’s tough to single out individual performances after such a complete team effort by Ireland in Twickenham yesterday, but once again, the Ulster centre stood out with a series of excellent contributions.
McCloskey has been feeling good about his game for a while, and yesterday his efforts were central to one of the great Ireland wins under Andy Farrell.
“It was a great performance. We proved a lot of people wrong,” McCloskey said.
“We probably proved to ourselves more importantly what we can do when we get stuff right.”
McCloskey was asked if proving the doubters wrong had been a source of motivation this week.
“Probably more we wanted to prove to ourselves how good we are. And obviously a lot of things didn’t go right over the last two rounds. Some went well and we got it right. I thought we looked really good, but it just didn’t really piece it all together.
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“But I thought today we pieced a lot of what we wanted to do together and I thought it was pretty good all round.
Ireland's Stuart McCloskey is tackled by England's Ollie Chessum and Ollie Lawrence. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
“Someone was telling me it’s the most we’ve ever scored against England at home. So, amazing. I didn’t expect it at the start of the day, if I’m being pretty honest. But it was great. I think we put a lot of stuff together, as I said. And what a day!”
The 33-year-old was outstanding with the ball in his hands, but his performance will be remembered for the lung-busting chase back and tackle on Marcus Smith in the second half.
“I probably ran back and hoped more than the expectation. And as I got closer, it was like, ‘Oh flip, I’m actually going to get him’. But yeah, I was absolutely cooked after it. I was basically a body bag for the last five minutes but thankful the game was won.”
That moment was singled out by Farrell as the Ireland head coach summed him his thoughts on the team effort.
“That’s one of the things we said going into the day,” McCloskey added.
“Be all in for everybody, be in every moment. That’s the first minute, the 80th minute. As long as we fight for each other, whatever the result was, we’d be happy.”
Contributions are like that are what make McCloskey look indispensable to this at the moment.
I probably didn’t think I’d still be here in 10 years, no matter how well it went. And there’s tough times in there. But I’m glad I stuck at it to get to experience days like this now.
“It’s a strange one. My body feels really good, as it has done for a while but when you play more, you get more experience. I’ve seen most of the things that can happen on the rugby field now. I probably have played the most professional games, or close to the most professional games, on our team, and I’m just confident in what I do. As long as my body stays in pretty good nick, I’m pretty confident I can do this for a while longer.
“I think I said to myself a few years ago, I’m just going to enjoy every game I get from now on,” he added.
“I obviously haven’t played as much as I would have liked over the years. Not to turn my nose up at how many caps I have, but I would have loved more. And I think at the start, I probably didn’t enjoy it, I was just feeling the pressure.
“Now, let’s take every chance I have and try to enjoy everything I do out here. It’s amazing to do it in that jersey, what it represents and do it for the team that we have in there.”
Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan was among the first to offer his thoughts at full-time, speaking to ITV as his teammates celebrated with the travelling support.
“We’re such a hungry group. We believe in ourselves a lot,” Sheehan said.
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McCloskey: 'I'm glad I stuck at it to get to experience days like this'
STUART McCLOSKEY, FOR so long the man who couldn’t force his way into Test contention, is now Ireland’s Mr Reliable. It’s tough to single out individual performances after such a complete team effort by Ireland in Twickenham yesterday, but once again, the Ulster centre stood out with a series of excellent contributions.
McCloskey has been feeling good about his game for a while, and yesterday his efforts were central to one of the great Ireland wins under Andy Farrell.
“It was a great performance. We proved a lot of people wrong,” McCloskey said.
“We probably proved to ourselves more importantly what we can do when we get stuff right.”
McCloskey was asked if proving the doubters wrong had been a source of motivation this week.
“Probably more we wanted to prove to ourselves how good we are. And obviously a lot of things didn’t go right over the last two rounds. Some went well and we got it right. I thought we looked really good, but it just didn’t really piece it all together.
“But I thought today we pieced a lot of what we wanted to do together and I thought it was pretty good all round.
“Someone was telling me it’s the most we’ve ever scored against England at home. So, amazing. I didn’t expect it at the start of the day, if I’m being pretty honest. But it was great. I think we put a lot of stuff together, as I said. And what a day!”
The 33-year-old was outstanding with the ball in his hands, but his performance will be remembered for the lung-busting chase back and tackle on Marcus Smith in the second half.
“I probably ran back and hoped more than the expectation. And as I got closer, it was like, ‘Oh flip, I’m actually going to get him’. But yeah, I was absolutely cooked after it. I was basically a body bag for the last five minutes but thankful the game was won.”
That moment was singled out by Farrell as the Ireland head coach summed him his thoughts on the team effort.
“That’s one of the things we said going into the day,” McCloskey added.
“Be all in for everybody, be in every moment. That’s the first minute, the 80th minute. As long as we fight for each other, whatever the result was, we’d be happy.”
Contributions are like that are what make McCloskey look indispensable to this at the moment.
“It’s a strange one. My body feels really good, as it has done for a while but when you play more, you get more experience. I’ve seen most of the things that can happen on the rugby field now. I probably have played the most professional games, or close to the most professional games, on our team, and I’m just confident in what I do. As long as my body stays in pretty good nick, I’m pretty confident I can do this for a while longer.
“I think I said to myself a few years ago, I’m just going to enjoy every game I get from now on,” he added.
“I obviously haven’t played as much as I would have liked over the years. Not to turn my nose up at how many caps I have, but I would have loved more. And I think at the start, I probably didn’t enjoy it, I was just feeling the pressure.
“Now, let’s take every chance I have and try to enjoy everything I do out here. It’s amazing to do it in that jersey, what it represents and do it for the team that we have in there.”
Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan was among the first to offer his thoughts at full-time, speaking to ITV as his teammates celebrated with the travelling support.
“We’re such a hungry group. We believe in ourselves a lot,” Sheehan said.
“We knew we had a lot of Irish support here. We tapped into it well and I think we came out of the blocks extremely well.
“That performance right there is right up there with one of the best we’ve had.
“We have a lot of belief in this group,” he added.
“Everybody that we need is in the group and when we all come together we can make these special things happen.
“To get a win in Twickenham and see this Irish crowd, it’s pretty special.”
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