Jack McGrath insists Ireland can’t afford to rest on laurels

Sport invariably demands that players hustle mentally towards the next match, the next performance, the moment of success fleeting and quickly superseded by the need to look forward.

Sometimes, though, it's important to savour the moment. Chicago was one such occasion, 111 years of frustration dispelled in 80 minutes as Ireland beat New Zealand for the first time, at Soldier Field.

Jack McGrath understood. “Everyone goes through their own emotional stories, everyone plays the sport for a reason. I’m lucky enough to have been involved in historic, big wins with Ireland and for me I sort of stepped back from the crowd, looked around, took a few seconds for myself and just took it all in.

“None of my family were over which was unfortunate but they’re working so that’s real life. They all watched the game, I rang my girlfriend and I rang my mam straight after the game, it was great, just a really good feeling.

“They’re special days, they don’t come along too often and I’m lucky enough to have had a few of them so far and long may they continue. This weekend is definitely an opportunity to have another one.”

As the Ireland team circumnavigated the field, acknowledging the supporters, a lingering image, is McGrath clutching a beer. He smiled: “Some fella handed it to me; it turned out to be a great picture. I was glad to have it – I was fairly thirsty. Everyone in the crowd had two pints in their hand, so I just took one.”

Celebrated his 27th birthday

McGrath, who celebrated his 27th birthday last month, is a deserved candidate for Ireland's player of the year, consistently excellent, hard-working and effective. He acknowledges that those high standards are required to fend off the competition, Cian Healy and Dave Kilcoyne in particular.

“I think I perform best when I’m under pressure and you’re either trying to get in front of somebody or somebody’s coming up behind you. I’m always looking around at guys, in my province and in the other provinces and seeing what they’re doing and I’m, like, ‘jeez, I’m going to have to do this better’.

“It’s a great feeling and being able to play well under those pressures is great but having guys pushing each other is what you want.”

The confidence gleaned from the victory over the All Blacks can’t be dismissed but McGrath, in keeping with every other player and the Irish management, expects New Zealand to be a different prospect on Saturday.

The best team in the sport didn’t hit their straps on the day, down in some part to the pressure that Ireland exerted, being a little depleted personnel-wise, and just having a little bit of an off-day with their execution.

New Zealand will be better and so must Ireland. The lessons from the second Test in South Africa during the summer are an obvious reference point.

‘Blasphemy’

McGrath explained: “We had them [the Springboks] and we let them back in. I think it was 26-10 with 15 minutes to go. You can’t at international level let a team come back and win with 15 minutes to go when you are that far up; it is blasphemy. In that regard we probably learned a lot from that tour alone.

“I thought we finished off the game against New Zealand in Chicago when it was pretty tight, we went and we attacked them. We can’t rest on our laurels, we are at home, we are in front of our families and it is going to be an emotional day.

"We know how dangerous they are and they are going to have their guys . . . Brodie Retallick, Sam Whitelock and Jerome Kaino back in the backrow. For them alone in the lineout they make it so much more solid and that's an area they faltered against us in Chicago.

“For us it is not patting ourselves on the back; there is plenty of things we could improve on from Chicago. We know they weren’t at their best; we will definitely [have to] be at our best on the weekend.

“It was a really confidence-boosting thing [to win in Chicago], especially with the amount of young guys on the team. You’d have to feel great for the guys who have been there for 10-12 years plugging away; the likes of Rory [Best] being the first to captain a winning team against the All Blacks is a huge thing. Personally, I just want more and more of that.”