Still work to do at Leinster before McGrath starts French chapter

Making the decision to start anew in the Top 14 was one thing. Now the intricacies involved in shifting lock, stock and barrel to a new life on the continent are beginning to set in for Luke McGrath.

Luke McGrath during a Leinster Rugby squad training session at Rosemount in UCD. Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

A look of mild mortification flashes across Luke McGrath’s face the second Leinster’s scrum-half is asked about ‘the video’.

Video isn’t even an accurate summation of it, but no other words are needed. McGrath knows exactly what’s just been asked of him.

It was at the start of March when Perpignan announced his summer signing with the most brilliantly original two minutes and 44 seconds of material you’re likely to see.

An origins story, with McGrath narrating.

It unspooled the story of his birth in Canada, his years wearing the blue of Leinster and green of Ireland, and the day in 2003 when the then ten-year old was in Lansdowne Road with his dad watching Perpignan take down his home province in a Heineken Cup semi-final.

The finished product merged archive footage of the game with staged shots of a dad and child sitting in the dilapidated old stadium, and it explained how his memory of that day had been such a formative experience.

“Remember that jersey,” his dad had told him on the way home. “Those men played for something bigger than themselves today.” 

So, again, the video?

“Oh, God, yeah. They asked me what were my memories of Perpignan [when he signed] and I hadn’t played against them. Leinster played a pre-season game years ago but I didn't play.

“The only memory I had is going to the game with my dad in Lansdowne when everyone was tipping the two Irish teams to play in the final – [Munster lost away to Toulouse by a point] - but obviously the two French teams won.

“So I just remember it being a tough day but since that video I've been getting a little bit of abuse. A good bit of abuse. Leo [Cullen] said it was one of the worst days of his career because he was playing in the game.

“It seemed to go down well anyway.” 

Making the decision to start anew in the Top 14 was one thing. It’s only in recent weeks that some of the intricacies involved in shifting lock, stock and barrel to a new life on the continent are beginning to set in.

McGrath will be moving over with his family and the Leaving Cert French he took half a lifetime ago will only go so far. Rabah Slimani has been giving him some pointers, and a few lessons have been taken, but he knows that’s tip-of-the-iceberg stuff.

He’s 33 now, 14 years removed from his teenage debut against the Dragons in a newly-named PRO12. Now he’s approaching the end of his time at the only workplace he has known as an adult, and a place that has always felt like home.

There’s still work to to be done, starting with the Lions on Saturday.

“Since I made the decision to leave, I'm just trying to enjoy every day. I've been here 14 or 15 years. I remember walking into this club when I was 18. It’s been my whole life essentially so I'm just trying to cherish it.

“I've made some unbelievable relationships here. I've played with a lot of lads since I was 16 here and who are still in the squad. So I'm just trying to enjoy every day and hopefully we can get some silverware and that will make it an even more special way to finish.” 

There have been seven league titles collected in his time, and that Champions Cup success when Leinster last played in a final in Bilbao. That was when they saw off Racing 92 in a scrappy game on a wet day in the Basque Country.

It’s easy to forget now but McGrath was still the main man at scrum-half then. He played the first hour at the San Mames before Jamison Gibson-Park came on in a replacement role that was very familiar to him and us at the time.

Those roles were reversed after the 2019 World Cup when Andy Farrell elevated Gibson-Park into the box seat and Leinster followed suit, and it’s been that way ever since with McGrath very much the understudy this last six years.

McGrath’s praise for his teammate is unvarnished.

“He's amazing to watch. I think he's probably been one of our best and most consistent players for the last four or five years, definitely. He's such a good person as well. He's very open to helping everyone. You can see the way the team flows when he's playing.

“He was brilliant at the weekend [against Toulon]. To get to go 80 minutes, which is very tough to do as a scrum-half these days, he was excellent the other day. He's a massive part of this team and Ireland's team.”