McGrathouttoput downmarkerforthe big challenges ahead
JACK McGRATH has been through enough in his life to know the importance of not sweating the small stuff, but even still, there are times when he feels the need to remind himself of the privileged position that he is in.
Getting picked for the Lions squad was a career highlight but, since last summer’s tour, the re-emergence of Cian Healy, coupled with McGrath losing his form, has seen him slip to number two in the pecking order.
It’s the kind of selection headache that Joe Schmidt craves as it means he can rotate his looseheads as he sees fit.
“I know that those things help spur players on,” the Kiwi (right) maintained.
“If Jack delivers the best he can this weekend then that’s a challenge to Cian sitting watching on the bench to come on and add further value.
“It is nice to build that depth of competition because it keeps everyone honest and it adds a kind of resilience to the team if we do pick up an injury.”
McGrath is at the stage now where he has to take every chance that he is given and against Italy tomorrow he has an ideal chance to lay down a marker.
Reflecting on his form, he admits that he fell below the standards that he expects of himself in the earlier part of the season.
“I think for a long time I probably worried about stuff that was uncontrollable,” he said.
“For me now, when I make a mistake, I just get on with it. You are never going to play the perfect game.
“You want to try and play the best game of your life every time you go out but it doesn’t always happen, but what you can do is try and control things to make you try and play the best game, and prepare well.
“Just go into games with a confidence and enjoy it, because people would give their left arm to be where you are and sometimes you forget that.
“When you get away from that, I think, for me, it is difficult.
“I think everyone goes through peaks and troughs. Sometimes it’s not to be worrying all of the time because, if you’re worrying the whole time, it is mentally draining.
“From my experience of playing at a high level now, I know you don’t have to be worrying all of the time. There are certain times when you are able to switch off and certain times when you have to be sharp,” said McGrath.
“And when you do that correctly I believe that you come into games and times when you’re mentally prepared.”
After a gruelling last season, McGrath dismisses the notion that he was mentally fatigued coming back from the Lions tour, but it would be quite understandable if he was.
“No, for me it was physical,” the 28-year-old insisted.
“I probably just came back a little bit undercooked, I hadn’t played a lot of games.”
He added: “I’m feeling good. We can’t be complacent if we want to win the Grand Slam.” EDDIE Jones has piled the pressure on inexperienced Wales flyhalf Rhys Patchell by unleashing Jonathan Joseph for tomorrow’s Six Nations encounter, with reigning champions England ready to capitalise on any nerves hiding inside the Scarlets youngster.
Patchell will start only his fourth Test — and second in the Six Nations — against England due to the injury-enforced absences of Dan Biggar and Rhys Priestland in what is a top-of-the-table clash, and he faces a defensive onslaught from Jones’ side as they look to get to the No.10 in the hope of putting Wales off their game.
Part of that plan will be to let Joseph rush up and threaten to either intercept anything thrown wide by Patchell or hit him along with inside centre Owen Farrell and, although Jones confirmed he does not want to rush Ben Te’o with back-to-back Tests on his return from injury, he also expects Joseph to throw the Wales fly-half into the pressure cooker.
“Every time Rhys Patchell looks up he’s going to see ‘JJ’ — it’s not a great sight,” Jones said. “They’ve got to get the ball wide and Patchell hasn’t played much Test rugby. He’s young, he’s inexperienced and he’s their third choice 10. He’s got to get the ball wide and that’s going to be a big job for him.
“It’s going to be different to playing Scotland. Scotland couldn’t cope with the expectation and now he’s got to cope with the expectation of playing well. He’s going to be under some heat.” England team to play Wales: M Brown; A Watson, J Joseph, O Farrell, J May; G Ford, D Care; M Vunipola, D Hartley, D Cole; J Launchbury, M Itoje; C Lawes, C Robshaw, S Simmonds. Replacements: J George, A Hepburn, H Williams, G Kruis, S Underhill, R Wigglesworth, B Te’o, J Nowell.