McFadden relief after his welcome big break
A year after breaking his jaw and missing out on his first Irish tour, McFadden has batted away stern opposition to win his place on Declan Kidney’s selection.
“It’s funny how these things happen,” he said of the injury sustained a day before he was due to depart to New Zealand in 2010. “But it [also] happened to Geordy [Geordan Murphy] before a World Cup eight years ago.”
He admitted: “It was a massive disappointment. It was going to be my first Irish tour and to break my jaw the day before was gutting. Obviously I wanted to come back strong and have a good season the following year, and thankfully I did. To get into this position has been a long road, but it was worth it. I can’t wait to get on with training now and the match this week, and look forward to what’s to come.”
Relief, he said, would be the best word to describe his selection. “Obviously I was confident in my ability to get in but there are so many good players that it was impossible to second guess. There were always going to be six or seven players definitely on the plane, but I certainly wasn’t one of them.”
His gain is Luke Fitzgerald’s loss, and McFadden admitted it must be a crushing blow for his Leinster colleague. “There are lots of great players who missed out, there’s strength in depth in the squad, so players can slot in and do a good job if there are any injuries. But that’s the nature of it [the squad system]; only 30 players can go and I’m thankful to be one of them.”
McFadden also thanked Leinster coach Joe Schmidt for helping him secure a place on the squad.
“Since Joe has come, I feel I’ve really come on as a player and I was given a lot more game time, which definitely brought me on. Joe said he’d play me on the wing when Gordon [D’Arcy] and Brian [O’Driscoll] were around and mix and match between the centres as well. I think that’s been good for me because we need players who can play in different positions going to the World Cup.”
In the coming weeks, Ireland’s players will feel the heat, but in a different way; he admitted the stress levels were particularly high in the build up to selection.
“I was just talking to some of the lads, saying what an honour it is to be in because only 30 can go. I suppose now is where the real work starts because in the last couple of weeks people were kind of looking over their shoulders and wondering if they were training well and doing well. Now we can just be ourselves and try to let everything come together before the first match against the United States.”
He conceded there is work to be done, but is confident that to a man this squad will prove worthy of selection: “Yeah I definitely feel there’s a lot to come out of the team, but I think we’re going in the right direction.
“I don’t think that’s a cliché for us because we scored three tries against France, and they only scored two. Maybe our discipline and a few unforced errors let us down. I think if we can get up a level again on Saturday, we’ll be going in the right direction going into the first pool game.”
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