Attitude, aptitude and good fortune are three essential components common to most successful sportspeople. The first two are mental and physical qualities, the third open to whimsy; although according to the legendary South African golfer Gary Player, the harder he practised the luckier he got.
Jack McGrath worked hard from an early age at his rugby. In speaking to his coaches at senior level in school at St Mary’s College, Dave Breslin and Rodney O’Donnell, both used the word ‘dedicated,’ in describing his work ethic.
They rattled off many other qualities to boot but the glue that bound the disparate parts of his game was a willingness to push and push and push; literally and figuratively. The young prop has matured from outstanding prospect to a highly regarded international, the most recent example of which came in the match against South Africa.
French referee Romain Poite adjudicated against the 25-year-old in penalising him in a couple of scrums. It might have induced anxiety in an individual less mentally resilient but McGrath understands the analogy that some days you’re the statue, on others, the pigeon.
His response was 17 tackles, a staggering number and numerous carries; that was the visible stuff. He then handed the jersey to Dave Kilcoyne for the Georgia match and the Munster man added try scoring, goose stepping embellishments before in all likelihood returning it to McGrath for the test match against Australia on Saturday.
Possession is nine tenths of the law; well that’s how players like to look at things in general and it is the last test match of 2014. There is also the small matter of trying to reverse a crushing disappointed from the November test series last year. McGrath won his second cap that day in Schmidt’s second game as Ireland coach when the Australians were last in Dublin. The visitors won emphatically.
The Leinster loosehead admitted: "It brought me back down to earth after a good start to my international career. We learned a lot from last year and we've been doing a lot over the last few weeks on these guys (Aussies) because they are very dangerous when they get going."
He specifically identifies his own particular homework in analysing the qualities of Sekope Kepu and Ben Alexander, Australia's tightheads and the necessity to change things up in the scrum or risk being found out. That included some live scrums.
“You do have to do a good amount to get a good hit. Some of the guys were a bit stiff from Sunday. We did some today, it went pretty well but there were a few things that we needed to tweak because we did struggle against South Africa. We knew that and I thought we were much better against Georgia. We are going to be building on it for this weekend and onwards.
“(In terms of the maul) you can’t do a whole lot of it (live) because you can’t be beating each other up but you have to do one or two every session to try and get it bang on. You can’t be doing eight or 10 because the bodies won’t hold up to it because the game has become so physical. You can walk through your own role, do a lot of visualisation.”
Every Leinster player is asked for an insight about the new Australian coach Michael Cheika based on his time with the province. McGrath's was a snapshot, time wise. "I would have known him briefly. I came into the squad as he was leaving. (He was) a pretty stern operator by all accounts.
“He’s going to give the Aussies a pretty hard nosed edge as well. It’s great for them; it’s only going to make them a better team.”
He counsels against dwelling on Ireland’s two victories in November to date, other than it doesn’t do any harm for team confidence. For him it’s about investing in proper preparation and then once the whistle sounds an unrelenting work-rate. Everything that’s characterised his career to date really.
