Andrew Porter has probably borne the brunt of Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final defeat by the All Blacks as much as anyone, with the possible exception of Johnny Sexton. This is, by Porter’s own admission, in keeping with his personality but it was also due to Wayne Barnes penalising him three times in the five scrums which New Zealand had in the quarter-final.
That’s quite an extreme, one-sided interpretation. Even Andy Farrell, unusually, went so far as to admit that the Irish coaches had “a different view to what was going on out there [in the scrum] but we don’t want to sit here and have sour grapes.”
Both former Irish tighthead Mike Ross and ex-England and Lions loosehead Alex Corbisiero questioned two of Barnes’ decisions. Speaking on The Rugby Pod with Jim Hamilton and Andy Goode a week ago, Porter revealed his blood was boiling during the game and he’s had sleepless nights since.
“I’m still trying to come to terms with it in my own head,” he said. “It was gutting, I have never felt that much of a low in my career.”
A week on, Porter was speaking with a small gathering of the Irish media in Kilkenny College where his father Ernie studied. “I was taken around the school there and I saw photos of him hanging up on the wall from 1992 or something.”
All of which is a welcome distraction from what he describes as “a low point”, adding: “People in the RPI [Rugby Players Ireland] said ‘Have a plan after the World Cup,’ but it’s hard to plan for that. It was really tough. I think I probably took it harder than a lot of people. There’s people like Johnny who it was incredibly tough on but, yeah, it was really hard coming home and back to reality.
“It’s just down to who I am. I probably put a lot on myself anyway, and obviously the way the game was, how it turned out, it’s probably down to that a small bit.”
Nor is this a new feeling, just the worst he’s known so far.
“I remember losing a lot more than I win. I think a lot of people are like that, but I think maybe I’m overdoing it!”
He still has flashbacks but hasn’t watched the game again since.
“It still comes into my head. It’s one of those things where you’ve been building up for four years, since obviously the last one. There was obviously so much hype around it and energy here, back home, and obviously the supporters who came over and made it so special in the games previous and on the day they were there for us as well.
“Hindsight’s a great thing after it and you go, ‘Aw, I should have done that’. But things happened so quickly in the moment when you’re obviously trying your best to rectify what happened before. But there’s only so much you can do really.”
The best of his three-week holiday was his week in New York with his wife Elaine, akin to a delayed honeymoon.
“I was able to get out and take my mind off it completely, be so far away from rugby, so far away from that game. And obviously I had my wife there and she looks after me well.”
“I’d never been properly. I got my first cap in New York [against the USA in 2017] but didn’t get much chance [to see the city]. Elaine did all the itinerary planning so I was just tagging along really. It was great. She’s the organised one out of both of us.”
The highlight?
“I’m usually not one for musicals but The Lion King was fantastic. Went to the Knicks game. I went ice skating and I hadn’t been ice skating in years. I was good but I didn’t realise I was still good at it. I wouldn’t like to fall now because I’m 120 kilos.”
[ Inside World Rugby’s bid to fix the scrumOpens in new window ]
The pain of that quarter-final has eased a little now, thanks largely to having a week’s training and a game under his belt. For Porter, that was therapy.
“It was a breath of fresh air. I felt like I nearly had too long off even though three weeks really flies by. It was great to be back in seeing all the lads and being around the coaches. You do have the sense of more things ahead and more things to look forward to. There’s obviously a huge game this week,” he added in reference to Saturday’s semi-final rematch with Munster at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 6.30pm).
Leinster owe their rivals for last May’s 16-15 semi-final defeat, and after playing Connacht in the Sportsground on Saturday week, they begin their Champions Cup campaign away to La Rochelle who have erased their hopes of a cherished fifth star in each of the last three seasons.
Even more than last season, Leinster are the hunters now rather than the hunted ones.
“Definitely. There is a huge hunger in the squad now. You are looking back to the last two seasons where we have come up short. We are definitely the hunters now and we have our targets set and our sights narrowed down. We know what we want to do and a lot of the players here are as hungry as ever to go out and play.
“It’s one of those things where we’ve got a huge chip on our shoulder. What better way to be able to do it: playing at home at the Aviva and then in two weeks after we have the European champions and Connacht as well. We have huge interpro games, the Champions Cup, then Munster down in Thomond [on St Stephen’s Day] so it is a huge bloc. It’s an incredibly exciting time to come back and play.”
Onwards and upwards.
