A SATURDAY AFTERNOON trip to Treviso may previously have been considered as one to avoid in the context of a player’s chances of featuring for Ireland during the Test windows, but this weekend’s Guinness Pro14 clash carries huge significance.
Not only have Benetton developed into an emerging force in the league, shedding the whipping boys tag by marrying an attractive style of rugby with progressive results, but Leinster’s round seven run-out at the Stadio Monigo comes at the perfect time for those who will travel in blue.
The last thing Jack McGrath wanted to do was surrender further ground to Cian Healy in their loosehead tête-à-tête, but an early-season knee injury set him back and the 29-year-old is now only building up his match fitness and sharpness again.
Having fallen behind the resurgent Healy at both provincial and international level last season, McGrath appeared to have gained an upper hand when starting two of Ireland’s Tests Down Under, but that setback couldn’t have come at a worse time.
He was forced to watch the first five rounds of Pro14 action, before making his seasonal debut in the inter-pro victory over Munster at the Aviva Stadium, and has since come off the bench in the Heineken Champions Cup games against Wasps and Toulouse.
All things considered, Saturday’s game [KO 3pm, eir Sport] is a big chance for McGrath to get more minutes under his belt.
“It was a difficult season,” he says, looking back. “Obviously we had won the trophies and everything like that but you want to be starting a few more games. But sure that is the nature of the beast.”
McGrath started just 12 games for Leinster during their double-winning campaign, while four of his nine Ireland appearances in 2017/18 were starts.
“It does keep the focus. It’s peculiar, two top-quality looseheads fighting for the one position in the same club,” he continues.
You want to be starting but there is no doubt that Cian is playing very good rugby so it’s up to me to pry the jersey from him. But I’m a team man and I’ll do whatever I need to do as part of that team to help them do whatever we need to do.
“I am competitive, Cian is competitive. I think we bring the best out of each other. It was a nice way to top off the end of the year and to win down there [in Australia] is incredible for the first time in 70 years. It just topped off the year altogether.”
Yesterday named in Joe Schmidt’s November Tests squad, McGrath knows he has ground to make up if he is to seize his opening in the coming weeks, starting in Treviso on Saturday.
“The way the season has started, with picking up the injury. Last weekend was my third weekend back. I played 42 minutes and then 25 at the weekend so hopefully I’ll get a whack of minutes this time.
“Sometimes things can be taken out of your hands, like if you get an injury. I just do what Leo (Cullen) wants me to do and to try and put my hand up for selection whenever I take the field. Hopefully, I get the nod and be able to push myself into selection down the line.”
It’s not so long ago — 16 months to be exact — that McGrath was part of Warren Gatland’s Lions squad in New Zealand having established himself as Schmidt’s first-choice number one — but things changed quickly, most notably when Healy turned a corner with his own form after the historic win over the All Blacks in Chicago.
Just two European starts last term, as well as a single appearance in Ireland’s Autumn schedule 12 months ago, contributed to McGrath’s personal frustration but he is eyeing up that starting berth again.
With Finlay Bealham, who today agreed a new contract extension with Connacht, and Munster’s Dave Kilcoyne also in Schmidt’s enlarged panel, competition is as high as ever but McGrath knows a return to Soldier Field next week would provide him with the chance to stake his claim ahead of the games against Argentina and New Zealand.
“This year we are going to get a chance to come up against a lot of quality teams,” he added.
That All Blacks team is especially one and how much Argentina have improved. They are taking scalps right, left and centre and again it is building towards the Six Nations and building towards the World Cup.
“So every game that we get is an opportunity to improve and get a little bit more cohesion as a squad.”
On Saturday’s opposition, McGrath knows Benetton provide an entirely different challenge these days, with the Italian outfit unbeaten at home in the Pro14 this season, while they also caused a huge upset at the RDS last April.
“The way the Italian clubs are going, the way they are being coached, they are getting the depth of players now that they needed whereas before they just had the guaranteed 15 players and you kind of knew that by the end of the Six Nations those guys had played a lot and they were just fatigued.
“So now they have guys can step in at that level and yeah they are much more dangerous than they have been in the past but they are always a tough opposition.”
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