WHILE MOST OF the Leinster squad gathered in Dublin on Sunday to have a few drinks in the wake of their Champions Cup final loss to Bordeaux, Andrew Porter had his hands full at home.
His son, Max, turned one, and the Porters were celebrating.
“Nice bit of perspective on life as a whole,” says Porter. “That was probably a lovely distraction, I suppose.
“A lot of family that I hadn’t seen in ages came over to the house for the big man’s first birthday, so the perfect thing to take my mind off things, having 70 people in the house to cook for everyone and make sure everyone’s fed and watered.
“My dad has 10 brothers and sisters, so yeah, and then I forget how many of them have kids. They were all running about the house.
“I could have just sat in the corner on Sunday for my kid’s birthday, but life does go on.”
Not that Porter isn’t as gutted as the rest of his Leinster team-mates. The birthday celebrations meant he just didn’t have time to wallow in the misery of another Champions Cup final loss on Sunday.
He describes what he has experienced in quiet moments since the final as an “incredibly shit feeling.”
The game echoes around his head, and he wonders if he should have done things differently at key moments.
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“It’s nearly like PTSD of the last few years,” says Porter.
“When you’re at home, there is obviously a lot of distraction, but when you have that dead time, you have that, ‘Oh God’, like you’re flat.”
The squad did the difficult Champions Cup final review session on Tuesday morning.
Having done that analysis, Porter doesn’t think “there’s a huge gap in terms of talent or anything like that” between Leinster and Bordeaux.
Porter during the Champions Cup final. Nick Elliott / INPHO
Nick Elliott / INPHO / INPHO
So what went wrong in the final?
“That’s a big question,” he says. “We started the exact way we wanted to. We were the first ones on the scoreboard and built a bit of pressure there.
“And then a kick from them turns into a five-metre scrum, and then they’re in the corner. And then a charge down in the first half as well, we just don’t get the scraps. They kick it through, they win the ball on the bounce, intercept.
“We built pressure, but then there were times when the valve just released and kind of went their way, and then went their way far too much.
“The first time we gave them far too much opportunity and a team like Bordeaux, when you give them that much opportunity, they capitalise on it. And then, sure, it’s an uphill battle.
“It’s a tough score to come back from. Like we got how many 22 entries in the second-half, converted a few, but not half as much as we should have compared to other games in the season, where you look at our 22-metre entries, more efficient.
“If you looked at the stats without the score, you’d be like, ‘Oh, they definitely won.’ But they’re just numbers at the end of the day. That’s where we felt that we were building pressure in terms of the metres gained, gainline success.
“We were winning in those areas, but it’s just those breakaways, those small things in the game where you just let them have a foothold, and it just keeps building.”
By Tuesday afternoon, Porter and the Leinster squad had to make an effort to begin looking forward.
They got out onto the pitch for training as they did their best to focus on this Saturday’s URC quarter-final against the Lions at the Aviva Stadium.
“I suppose there’s that nice thing that we have something still to play for at the end of the season. It’s obviously not the way you want to start the week, but the postmortem analysis was obviously tough, obviously necessary.
Porter at Leinster training on Tuesday. Grace Halton / INPHO
Grace Halton / INPHO / INPHO
“It’s a great group here, being able to kind of take what we can from the game without being too down or pointing fingers too much, but it’s great to be able to flip the page and have something else to look forward to, rather than just, ‘Alright, that’s the season done’, and then you’re dwelling with it for however many weeks.”
Leinster were able to steady themselves at this stage last season, bouncing back from their Champions Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Northampton to win the URC.
Porter hopes they’ll do the same in the coming weeks.
“There’s still something here that we can… we could make ourselves proud, and give the fans something as well because we saw how special it was last year in Croke Park
“We saw how special that was, and you can leave the season on a high then.”
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'It's nearly like PTSD... it's an incredibly sh*t feeling'
WHILE MOST OF the Leinster squad gathered in Dublin on Sunday to have a few drinks in the wake of their Champions Cup final loss to Bordeaux, Andrew Porter had his hands full at home.
His son, Max, turned one, and the Porters were celebrating.
“Nice bit of perspective on life as a whole,” says Porter. “That was probably a lovely distraction, I suppose.
“A lot of family that I hadn’t seen in ages came over to the house for the big man’s first birthday, so the perfect thing to take my mind off things, having 70 people in the house to cook for everyone and make sure everyone’s fed and watered.
“My dad has 10 brothers and sisters, so yeah, and then I forget how many of them have kids. They were all running about the house.
“I could have just sat in the corner on Sunday for my kid’s birthday, but life does go on.”
Not that Porter isn’t as gutted as the rest of his Leinster team-mates. The birthday celebrations meant he just didn’t have time to wallow in the misery of another Champions Cup final loss on Sunday.
He describes what he has experienced in quiet moments since the final as an “incredibly shit feeling.”
The game echoes around his head, and he wonders if he should have done things differently at key moments.
“It’s nearly like PTSD of the last few years,” says Porter.
“When you’re at home, there is obviously a lot of distraction, but when you have that dead time, you have that, ‘Oh God’, like you’re flat.”
The squad did the difficult Champions Cup final review session on Tuesday morning.
Having done that analysis, Porter doesn’t think “there’s a huge gap in terms of talent or anything like that” between Leinster and Bordeaux.
So what went wrong in the final?
“That’s a big question,” he says. “We started the exact way we wanted to. We were the first ones on the scoreboard and built a bit of pressure there.
“And then a kick from them turns into a five-metre scrum, and then they’re in the corner. And then a charge down in the first half as well, we just don’t get the scraps. They kick it through, they win the ball on the bounce, intercept.
“We built pressure, but then there were times when the valve just released and kind of went their way, and then went their way far too much.
“The first time we gave them far too much opportunity and a team like Bordeaux, when you give them that much opportunity, they capitalise on it. And then, sure, it’s an uphill battle.
“It’s a tough score to come back from. Like we got how many 22 entries in the second-half, converted a few, but not half as much as we should have compared to other games in the season, where you look at our 22-metre entries, more efficient.
“If you looked at the stats without the score, you’d be like, ‘Oh, they definitely won.’ But they’re just numbers at the end of the day. That’s where we felt that we were building pressure in terms of the metres gained, gainline success.
“We were winning in those areas, but it’s just those breakaways, those small things in the game where you just let them have a foothold, and it just keeps building.”
By Tuesday afternoon, Porter and the Leinster squad had to make an effort to begin looking forward.
They got out onto the pitch for training as they did their best to focus on this Saturday’s URC quarter-final against the Lions at the Aviva Stadium.
“I suppose there’s that nice thing that we have something still to play for at the end of the season. It’s obviously not the way you want to start the week, but the postmortem analysis was obviously tough, obviously necessary.
“It’s a great group here, being able to kind of take what we can from the game without being too down or pointing fingers too much, but it’s great to be able to flip the page and have something else to look forward to, rather than just, ‘Alright, that’s the season done’, and then you’re dwelling with it for however many weeks.”
Leinster were able to steady themselves at this stage last season, bouncing back from their Champions Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Northampton to win the URC.
Porter hopes they’ll do the same in the coming weeks.
“There’s still something here that we can… we could make ourselves proud, and give the fans something as well because we saw how special it was last year in Croke Park
“We saw how special that was, and you can leave the season on a high then.”
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Andrew Porter Leinster Lions Misery URC