Andrew Porter proves a handy man to have in a tight spot for Leinster

How many players can say they have been called up for one British and Irish Lions tour as a tighthead and another as a loose? And a longer reverse migration isn’t something he would rule out

Andrew Porter during Leinster Rugby squad training at UCD in Dublin. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile

The hardest part of switching from one side of the front row to the other? You might think it’s the demands in technique, or the variations in forces and angles. 

For Andrew Porter, the worst of it came hours after the Connacht game last weekend.

“Trying to go to sleep on Saturday night and … like, my ear was killing me,” said the Leinster and Ireland prop. “I couldn't go to sleep. It was just so sore. And all the bed sheets are ruined. So yeah, blood everywhere waking up.” 

Both of Porter’s ears are, by his own admission, in a fairly ragged state by now having started his career as a tighthead, swapped over to loosehead four years ago, and then popped back over as emergency cover for the URC interpro at the Aviva Stadium.

A late injury to Rabah Slimani prompted this latest, unexpected shift. Past experiences gave Porter what amounted to a “safety net” as he came off the bench five minutes before half-time. It was fun, he said, though not without its challenges.

“I remember in the warm up on the weekend, I hit one scrum in tighthead and I was like ‘Jesus, it's easy, isn't it?’ A few in the game, I was like, ‘Jesus, my legs are gone here’. Just a different kind of different feeling.” 

Porter’s initial residency at tighthead ended with 34 minutes off the bench away to Glasgow Warriors in a Rainbow Cup game in June of 2021. Up to now, his only return had been another emergency cover a few years back when the two tightheads had departed.

That was against the Sharks.

He is clearly a handy man to have around. After all, how many players can say they have been called up for one British and Irish Lions tour as a tighthead and another as a loose? 

A longer reverse migration isn’t something he would rule out and there may even be another change of scenery as soon as this week given Tadhg Furlong and Rabah Slimani are both doubts.

“Yeah, as a rugby player you have a small bit of autonomy and then you have... You've got to do as you're told as well. I'll always do what's required for the best of the team. I'm happy. I'm loosehead at the moment. But down the line, you never know.” 

Porter’s place in the scrum has been of keen interest for a while now. The accusation has been that his technique was suspect and punished accordingly by referees. Leinster forwards coach Robin McBryde believes any reputation he had in that sense has since gone.

We’ll see.

The referee for this Saturday’s Champions Cup visit of La Rochelle to Dublin is the same Matthew Carley who penalised the Ireland scrum ten times against South Africa at the end of November and sent both Porter and Paddy McCarthy to the sinbin.

Porter isn’t wrong in talking about the subjectivity of this area, and he’s not the first to share the desire among players for consistency when it comes to decisions: both observations delivered in politic terms, this week, it must be said.

One theory to arise from the Springbok demolition had less to do with any perceived fault in his own technique and more to do with a suggested success on the Boks’ part to split him and isolate him from the rest of the front row.

“You always have teams with different tactics coming into games. You can prep all you want from pictures you've seen in previous games and then something else happens in the game. It's being able to rectify that in-game and see and feel what's going on there so you can do the best you can to defend against it and to block it, negate it.

“That game, I take that as a good thing now. Obviously when it’s happened you're not thinking that way, but for that to happen now it's better to have than this weekend. It's better than [if] it happens in the Six Nations with Ireland, or down the road in the World Cup in ‘27. You'd rather have those learnings at this stage rather than down the line.” 

La Rochelle bring the potential to impose further lessons.

Ronan O’Gara is well down the road of building a new team and squad but some faces remain painfully familiar, among them giants like Levani Boatia, Will Skelton and the man-mountain of a tighthead that is Uni Atonio.

Leinster, having lost a semi-final and two deciders to La Rochelle, have now won their last three encounters, including a blowout quarter-final in Dublin, but this is still an encounter and a rivalry that catches the eye.

“The last two pool games that we played were incredibly tight. So you're always in for a close encounter and a tough game knowing the players they have and they'll definitely be up for it. After the last few results we've had they'll definitely be up for it.”