Jack McGrath has crammed a huge amount of rugby into his last four seasons, as he does most times he plays. He’s tough and durable. High tackle counts and hitting a high number of rucks are his norm. He’s always been that way. He enjoys coming off whacked, secure in the knowledge that he hasn’t let his team down.
“I like getting stuck in and just working for my team-mates. That’s my litmus test in how you earn respect. Guys seeing you work your balls off for them and making life easier for them, and whatever I can do in that regard, I’ll do.”
This will be McGrath's fourth Six Nations campaign. He seems to have been around longer, but then there's been three November series, summer tours to Argentina and South Africa, and a World Cup.
Ever present in the last three Six Nations, he played five games off the bench in 2014, made four starts in 2015, and then started all five last season.
The Six Nations is, he says, “hugely different” from anything else. “Having started five games last year, it is unbelievably attritional, emotionally and physically. It’s tough, and there’s a lot of mental strain.
“I’m lucky enough to have won two. There is a Grand Slam in this team but we’re not looking past this game. That’s the truth of it. It’s going to be a really tough game and we know how well the bulk of this Scottish team have been going with Glasgow. They’re going in to this game with a lot of confidence. It’s going to be a huge task for us.”
McGrath’s dad, Stephen, is a truck driver who didn’t play sport, although McGrath notes that his mum, Darina, trained in kick-boxing, if not competitively. That McGrath took up the game at 10 years of age was in part down to his family moving from Terenure village to an estate in the Terenure suburbs, where he made friends with rugby-playing mates from the nearby St Mary’s.
‘Express my demons’
“I was pissed off that I couldn’t play with them but I ended up playing under-11s, and just loved it. I was due to go to Terenure College, where my uncles went, but I went to St Mary’s as a result.”
McGrath owes both the St Mary’s school and club a huge amount. His senior cup team made the Leinster final, where they were beaten by Belvedere in 2008. “I’m a little bit lucky. I get to express my demons by still getting to play, but a lot of lads on that team don’t play, and that’s still a regret of theirs. We had a really tight-knit year and are still really close.”
McGrath played for Leinster schools and the Irish Under-19s and Under-20s, but in his first year out of school he only made Leinster’s sub-academy, before being upgraded. “It was probably only then that it hit me that I could actually do something here.”
Then tragedy struck, when his older brother took his own life in 2010. McGrath was 20 at the time, and resolved to throw himself into his rugby career. He readily admits it’s all he could do to cope.
“That probably spurred me on a lot, because he was such a big fan and supporter. As is well documented he came to all my games and told me I’d play for Ireland one day.”
Last season, McGrath fronted IRUPA’s “Tackle Your Feelings mental wellbeing campaign”, and helped to promote the “Darkness Into Light” annual fundraiser for Pieta House, the suicide and self-harm crisis centre. He’d like to do more.
“It’s hard. You can’t do everything. I just try and do as much as I can with them, and promote it through Twitter. Pieta House always let me know what they’re doing. I’m an ambassador for them as well.”
Away from the game, he likes to keep himself busy. He’s bought a house in Ranelagh with his girlfriend, Sinead. “I’ll clear that out myself. I like a bit of hands-on work. So that will take up a lot of time. I’ll be cutting down trees when the weather gets better.”
‘Toughens you up big time’
He also regards himself as “a little bit” of a chef, and loves rustling up a good chilli con carne, comprising the finest meat, home-made tomato sauce, with paprika, cumin and Worcestershire sauce. “Burning your finger is a different sort of pain to getting kicked in the shin.”
Ah the pain. There’s been some of that along the way, and cutting his teeth at club level with St Mary’s was invaluable. “It toughens you up big time. You get your head shoved up your proverbial you-know-what,” he says, chuckling. He’s still in a WhatsApp group from that 2012 All-Ireland winning team, of whom two out of 30 still play.
By then he was becoming part of the Leinster machine, and McGrath’s career has felt the effects of Joe Schmidt’s Midas touch, first at Leinster and then Ireland. He made his first Leinster start and began breaking into the Leinster team under Schmidt, and made his Irish debut in Schmidt’s first game as head coach, against Samoa in November 2013.
There's been two Six Nations titles, scoring his first Test try with the last play of the game in the home win over Italy in 2014. Saturday will be his 37th of 40 games under Schmidt. No one has as many in that time, with Jamie Heaslip on 35 and Rory Best on 34.
Needless to say, McGrath is a disciple.
“He’s changed me and everyone else as players. His attention to detail is just phenomenal and what he gets from players that aren’t necessarily the best is unbelievable. He just drives standards, and the players are willing to learn.
"For a lot of younger guys coming in now, this is just second nature to them. They come in and they just know their s**t, and that's what he loves. I can't say enough about him. I owe a lot to Joe Schmidt for my career."
These four seasons also culminates in a Lions’ cycle. Warren Gatland was at Ireland’s training last Tuesday. It’s there, in the background.
He was on holidays when the Lions toured South Africa of 2009. McGrath was 19 and had played in the Under-20 World Cup in Japan. “And I just remember it being insanely competitive and the most physical three Tests I’ve ever seen in my life.
“I was almost jealous looking at it, thinking ‘I’d love to be able to be at that level at some time in my life’. So you think about it but it doesn’t dominate your thoughts, because you can’t look too far ahead. There’s a lot of games to be played between now and then.”
‘Worst day of my career’
He’s had decidedly mixed times against the All Blacks heretofore, conceding the fateful 80th-minute penalty for going off his feet which led to Ryan Crotty’s match-stealing try in 2013 at the Aviva, to roaming around Soldier Field with a beer in hand and then the All Blacks’ vengeful visit to Dublin a fortnight later.
“That was the worst day of my career,” he also freely admits of the November 2013 game, his third cap. “That’s something that you never want to happen again. I remember coming on for 10 minutes but it was the most tired I’ve ever been because of the pace of the game.
“And that was part of the reason I gave away the penalty, because I was just fatigued and I fell down, so it was my own fault. You get a lot of mental toughness from those things. You don’t learn things by not making mistakes.”
It made that beer after the Chicago win taste all the sweeter. He recalls the “bizarre” week, from the Cubs’ World Series win on the Wednesday to the victory parade on the Friday. “It was like Paddy’s Day multiplied by a hundred. People being carried home and it was like 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon.”
“And then us winning in the Soldier Field was just insane. The phone nearly melted with all the messages. It was incredible and it’s not something I’ll ever forget.
“We were trying to go back-to-back against them. Not many teams have ever beaten them twice in a row. That’s the most recent one against them, and we lost. There were times in the game when we had them rattled, and we can be proud of that, but it’s definitely one that got away.”
At 27, these should be the peak years, both for him and, he hopes, for Ireland.
“That’s what I’m planning anyway. I’m not resting on anything, because you won’t get the years back. Yeah, it’s not the worst job in the world to be stressed like this for 15 years or so.
“There might be some things you won’t miss, but you’ll miss it as soon as it’s gone; the buzz of pulling on Leinster or Irish jerseys and playing with your mates, and getting to vent a bit of anger that otherwise you’d get locked up for,” he says, laughing one last time.
“I count myself very lucky.”
