Settled Andrew Porter eager for the long-haul with club and country

Andrew Porter during a Leinster rugby squad training session at Energia Park in Dublin. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Some of the biggest decisions can require only the smallest amount of thought.

The offer of a new three-year deal for Andrew Porter was one that made an abundance of sense for both parties. Still only 25, Porter is a top-class technician on both sides of the front row and a dynamic presence to boot.

Not the kind of player any employer would want to slip through their fingers, then, and for the man himself this extended piece of paper allows him stay on home turf, play with his friends and seek silverware with both club and country.

“Yeah, it didn’t take me too long to know this is where I wanted to stay,” he said prior to Leinster’s Heineken Champions Cup tie at home to Montpellier this Sunday.

“Sure I grew up always wanting to play for Leinster and play for Ireland as well. It’s strange how time moves so fast. You’re a kid going to watch Leinster games and looking up to all the Leinster players and now you’re in the middle of it.

“I’ve been really privileged in the people I’ve surrounded myself with, and who got me to where I am today. So yeah, I’m really happy with the deal I signed prior to Christmas.”

His migration from loosehead to tighthead and back again has been tracked closely long before now. Suffice to say that he was selected in the latter slot by the British and Irish Lions and has now reverted to the former like a duck to water.

A toe injury suffered at the back end of last year’s club campaign ultimately prevented him from appearing for the tourists in South Africa but that will surely be put to rights if he can maintain anything like his current form in the future.

The next tour, to Australia in 2025, is due at the same time as this new IRFU contract elapses but there is so much to aim for before that: a World Cup, four Six Nations, summer tours with Ireland and Leinster’s annual quest for trophies on two fronts.

“We all have our own goals. I’m not trying to stretch too far in them really. I’m just trying to take them as they come and look kind of short-term first and see what comes up after the next few years and take it year by year really.”

Day by day will do for now.

This supposed to be the backbone of the club season, a game-heavy period where the provinces turn for home around the festive period in both the URC and the Heineken Champions Cup, and yet Leinster haven’t played in over a month.

Their last outing was the stroll against Bath at the Aviva Stadium on December 11 and Porter, who has taken a liking to barbecues as a means of passing the extra free time, admits that it has made for a “weird” feeling.

“Stuart Lancaster is great in that sense, in terms of (how) we’re obviously frustrated in the here and now, but there’s so much to focus on to re-focus our attention towards.

“We have a huge game this week and then another huge one the week after. Then all the lads will be going into the Six Nations, and obviously a good few URC games after that. So it’s not as if we’re short on the amount of rugby coming up.

“If anything, it’s been a real good chance for us to refocus and kind of improve our game and our cohesion in our training. If anything, we’ve done really well in terms of the adversity of the last few weeks. It’s been really beneficial.”

The inactivity has been one thing but the loss of five crucial match points in the boardroom rather than on the pitch after the EPCR pulled their December trip to Montpellier and awarded a 28-0 win to the Top 14 side is another.

Forwards coach Robin McBryde has struck a balanced tone to the situation, admitting that it would be used as motivation in Ballsbridge this Sunday while at the same time accepting that the matter remains out of the hands of the playing group.

Porter feels similar.

“We were frustrated with the situation and how things turned out but the decision was made and all we can do is just get on with it. Like I’ve been saying to the lads, it’s more that we’ll just use this window to re-focus ourselves and blow past the hand we’ve been dealt.”