“It’s obviously tough, knowing one person isn’t there” – Andrew Porter

Patrick McCarry

“I must have got the green light!”

It is Ireland squad announcement day [January 17] and, for Andrew Porter, it is one full of surprises. The Leinster prop is only discovering how big of a part he will play in the new Netflix rugby documentary, and that he made the cut for Andy Farrell’s Six Nations squad.

“I wasn’t even sure if I was in, because usually I get like an email or something saying, ‘You’ve been selected’. I checked this morning and I didn’t say anything. My wife was even asking, don’t you usually get an email before the announcement? I checked a few times and still nothing. The doubt started setting in, then I checked my ‘spam’ and it was there. It had been there all along!

“A great day, though. You’re never going to lose that excitement, and that first feeling as when I was first brought in for the Six Nations.”

Our chat with Porter is done in advance of him heading away to Portugal for Six Nations training camp. The idea is for it to come out around the same time as the release of the Netflix documentary – Six Nations: Full Contact. The news has just been announced that Peter O’Mahony will captain Ireland for the championship, and Porter is delighted for the guy.

“Pete is an incredible leader. He’s got such great qualities about him. He’s always had that leader role in the squad, not just in the last year or two. He’s a fantastic leader of this team, a great guy to play with. You’d follow him into any battle. He’s got such a presence around the team, on and off the field. A lad that always gives 100%, and you know he always will. Yeah, a great guy to play with, an even worse guy to play against and he’s definitely the right man for the job.”

“Pete spends most of his free time in the garden,” Porter adds. “Like, you wouldn’t think that he’d be like this gentle gardener when you see the way he acts on the pitch. He’s a different man – a different beast, even – on the pitch.

“He’s great craic, though. I call him ‘Grumpy Pete’ whenever I see him, going about the place. Myself and Finlay Bealham are always trying to have the craic with him. Sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn’t – depending on how early in the morning, or late at night, it is. We’ll raid his room or turn the place upside down, when we’re in camp. He’s an incredible professional and he’s got a huge work ethic, but he knows how to enjoy himself.”

Andrew Porter chats with his sister, Leigh in Six Nations: Full Contact. (Credit: Netflix)

Andrew Porter – straight from the heart

Episode three of Six Nations: Full Contact heavily features Andrew Porter as he opens up on the loss of his mother, Wendy, when he was a child, mental health struggles, and finding his place in the world by packing down against the very best rugby players out there.

Porter has spoken openly about the severe grief, and lingering pain, of life without his mother, who died from cancer. That episode sees him give more of himself than many of us ever have, and really shows that rugby stars are going through day-to-day struggles like the rest of us. As former Ireland captain Johnny Sexton said, at the show’s Dublin premiere:

“I think a lot of people will be surprised to hear Andrew’s story, and what he has gone through. We all know his story so well, at Leinster and Ireland, and that’s what makes us love the guy, and pull for him, so much.”

Asked about the show, before its’ release to the general public, Porter admits, “No, I haven’t seen anything. I had the opportunity to watch the episode I was speaking in. I chose not to. I was like, ‘Nah, I can’t listen to myself speak’. So I basically told them it was fine to go ahead, and gave them the green light.”

Porter is fully in favour of the streamer offering up its ‘Drive to Survive’ production team [Box to Box] to deliver a rugby documentary that, it is hoped, will do for rugby what their other series has done for Formula 1. Primarily, he hopes it will show the human side to players that pull on the jersey to represent their nations.

“It’s incredible,” he says. “Obviously, a lot of people would know us mainly for being just rugby players who go out and knock two shades of shite out of each other, on a Saturday and Sunday. But there’s so much more to us, as people, as cringy as it sounds!

“You never really know what someone is going through, until they open up about it, and tell you. Not everyone will resonate with rugby and not everyone can really connect to it. You may, then, get people who are watching rugby for the first time, through the documentary. But I do think it will resonate with a lot of people. Just from my own stand, I’m speaking about loss and dealing with mental health problems. A lot of people can resonate, and connect with, that.

“Hopefully by me opening up, it has a positive effect on someone else. I think it’s important to show another side of you, other than just the rugby player.”

Andrew Porter stands for the anthems, at Aviva Stadium and (right) Wendy Porter with her children. (Credit: Sportsfile & Netflix)

Andrew Porter on loss, on and off the pitch

During the documentary, in an episode entitled ‘On The Edge’, Andrew Porter speaks about the effect losing his mother at a young age had on him. Wendy passed away from cancer just as Porter was preparing for that small fish, big pond switch from primary to secondary school.

“When you’re a kid,” he says, during the episode, “you don’t really know how things are. You don’t know how to fully articulate your thoughts. How to deal with all those emotions.”

His mother had gone from being the loudest, most encouraging voice on the sidelines to a memory, a comfort and an ache – all rolled into one. “She was my biggest fan.”

Porter often tears up during anthems before big Ireland games, and the same can be said as he sets himself for some of the massive games Leinster face into it. His mother is never far from his thoughts, in those moments, and his father is never far from his eye-line. Porter tells us:

“Usually during the anthems, I manage to make eye contact with my dad. Like, out of 50,000 people. I always managed to be able to find him.

“It means so much to be able to be out there, representing my country, doing something that I always wanted to do. And it means even more to be able to have my family there, watching me. But, yeah, it’s obviously tough, knowing one person isn’t there. One person that had such a huge effect on your life. It’s quite tough, especially on big days, where you obviously wish they were there and they are not. It can get me sometimes a bit emotional. Sometimes it can work for you, sometimes it works against you.”

On those big Ireland days that finish with big Ireland wins, having family and friends nearby is what makes the celebrations so much sweeter. That was apparent, last year, when several of the Grand Slam-winning squad went on an extra day of celebrations, organising a mini-bus to pick up some of the players’ dads.

Asked who are the big characters from the players’ families, Porter laughs. Ernie Porter and Pat Kilcoyne, Dave’s father, are up there, but there are a few more that can give as good as they get.

“Oh jeez,” says Porter, “Hugo Keenan’s dad, PK, he’s a great character. Mark Ryan, James’ dad, he’s some man, as well. They’re usually the lads that lead the charge! Pete O’Mahony’s dad, as well. He’s very similar to Pete. He nearly looks like Pete’s twin, at this stage, the way Pete is ageing!

“But it’s some crew. Even during the World Cup, it would be some craic, with all the dads and parents coming to watch their sons play these big games. It’s one big jolly-up, though, isn’t it?”

As we know, the latest World Cup quarter final stung so much, as it promised so much. Most signs leading up to that fateful game against New Zealand pointed towards an Irish victory. On the night, though, the All Blacks won the match by winning more of those clutch moments that tip the needle.

Porter had a tough night in the scrum, giving away some costly penalties. He admitted, a few weeks after the tournament, on The Rugby Pod that he had some sleepless nights. There was a form of validation, thanks to the fellow props union on social media, as the likes of Mike Ross, Alex Corbisiero and BJ Botha explained how Porter had been harshly pinged on a couple of those penalties.

Porter did not see any of that, though.

“I got rid of Twitter after the World Cup to be fair, or X. I got rid of it, pretty much. I went off social media for a bit. I just needed to clear my head and not have anything to do with rugby for a while.

“It’s always good to have lads who actually know what they are talking about fighting your corner, though. Like like Ross or Corbisiero, they know exactly all about the trials and tribulations of being a prop. The dark arts of the scrum. It’s always good to hear there are legends fighting your corner.”

Porter is grateful for his ‘incredible family and friends’ for helping him deal with that World Cup anguish and, at his own pace, move on. He recalls:

“It was literally like, someone died. It was like some huge tragedy.

“I know, looking back at it, it’s only a game but, at the time it was just like… it’s so hard to put the words to exactly how I felt after. It was nearly worse, the week directly after. You were coming from this supportive environment, where everyone was pulling together, then you’re just basically back home and you’re like, ‘OK, what do I do now? I don’t know what to do’.”

Porter was like so many of us that have bought into this Ireland team over the past few years. From stung to numb, then regaining that sense of, “What next?’ and having big games and moments excite us again. As Andy Farrell stated, “The journey continues.”

More people will recognise Andrew Porter on this leg of the journey. His openness and honesty in front of those Netflix cameras has already won him waves of new fans, and people watching out for him.

For the guy that has had his life transformed, even for a few months, by Netflix, he was almost oblivious to it all.

“I can’t even remember exactly who was, and who wasn’t, interviewed for it. I can’t even remember who else was followed by the cameras. I nearly forgot about this whole documentary until recently. Someone sent me on the trailer and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s going ahead. I must have got the green light!’”

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