THERE WAS A fantastically old-school photo of Jack McGrath doing the rounds after Ireland’s win over the All Blacks in Chicago.
The shot was snapped as Ireland strolled on their victory lap around Soldier Field after the 40-29 victory, and shows McGrath with a pint in one hand and an Irish flag in the other. A big smile across his face.
“What a player and pint drinker,” reads the Snapchat writing across the photo.
McGrath himself remembers the moment with a laugh.
“Some fella handed [the pint] to me! It turned out to be a great picture,” says McGrath. “Some fella handed it to me and I was glad to have it, I was fairly thirsty after that.
“It was a Heineken, but everyone in the crowd had two pints in their hands so I just took one!”
Indeed, McGrath had worked up quite a thirst with his world-class performance against the Kiwis. Himself and tighthead Tadhg Furlong were astonishingly mobile in open play, while also performing their set-piece duties to the highest standard.
McGrath, not renowned as the most prolific ball carrier, powered into contact in possession seven times, showing off some sharp footwork in the process. He combined with Furlong for one momentum-grabbing choke tackle and contributed 21 times at the ruck.
The Leinster man could certainly now claim to be one of the best looseheads in the world, but he instead underlines that the competition being provided by Cian Healy and others is driving him on.
“For me, I think I perform best when I’m under pressure and you’re either trying to get in front of somebody or somebody’s coming up behind you,” says McGrath.
“I’m always looking around at guys in my province and in the other provinces and seeing what they’re doing and I’m, like, ‘Jeez, I’m going to have to do this better’.
“The best teams have that sort of competition in all areas and that’s what we’re getting too. It’s building slowly but surely, but it’s getting there.”
Indeed, McGrath remarks that Dave Kilcoyne is “unlucky” not to be at Carton House this week, having been released back to Munster by Joe Schmidt, along with Darren Sweetnam.
The growth of Ireland’s depth since the World Cup is one reason McGrath is excited about the coming seasons, while he also says Ireland’s win over the All Blacks has helped their confidence take another step forward. There is no resting on the laurals for Ireland.
“The monkey is off our back, but when you have a win like that you want to win again,” says McGrath.
“It’s nothing to do it just once; we want to be able to back it up and that’s the focus for the week because we know how dangerous they are when you take your eye off them.”
Ireland have been in similar situations before, failing to back up big performances. Think of 2012 in New Zealand when they almost beat the All Blacks in Christchurch, only to get hammered 60-0 the following week.
Even last summer, a 14-man Ireland team won the first Test against South Africa but left a very winnable series behind them.
“How South Africa went, the second Test we had them and we let them back in,” recalls McGrath. “I think it was 26-10 with 15 minutes to go, you can’t at international level let a team come back and win with 15 minutes to go – when you are that far up it is blasphemy.
“In that regard, we probably learned a lot from that tour alone. The way the game went in 2013 [against New Zealand in Dublin], we need to be able to finish off games. I thought we finished off the game against New Zealand in Chicago when it was pretty tight, I think it was four or five points and we went and we attacked them.
“For us, it is not patting ourselves on the back. There are plenty of things we could improve on from Chicago.
“We know they weren’t at their best, we will definitely be at our best on the weekend. I think it has already been said that we poked a New Zealand bear.”
