Ireland’s World Cup exit left Andrew Porter racked by self-doubt

In an interview with the Irish Independent’s Left Wing podcast, Porter — who has played a key role in helping Ireland to their opening bonus-point wins in the Six Nations — admits he struggled with self-confidence after the All Blacks game when the Irish scrum was heavily penalised in Paris.

“Yeah, like self-doubt. You’re kind of questioning your self-worth. And even after, I questioned was I cut out to play professional rugby when I came home,” says Porter, an ambassador for the Irish Cancer Society.

“There was so much of that kind constantly going around in my head that I was convincing myself that was the case, but it clearly isn’t.

“You can nearly convince yourself that you don’t have a place in rugby. I was nearly convincing myself when I came back. That’s the thing with self doubt. It can creep up on you. I think it’s something I’m really trying to work on, especially with our coaches in Ireland.”

While Porter got some help, including advice from the Ireland coaches, he initially thought he could handle the crushing disappointment and self doubt by himself.

“They’re always available. But I thought I could deal with it myself. It’s kind of one of those cycles where you’re just like, ‘Yeah, I’m a professional athlete. I should be able to deal with this’,” he explains. “It probably is a pride thing. Sometimes people don’t want to admit they need help. And yeah, I think that’s been kind of like the story for my life so far.

“But it’s proven in the past that it’s worked for me. But I think, yeah, it can creep in where your pride kind of takes over a small bit and you’re trying to deal with everything yourself and sometimes it can kind of get too much to handle.”

Meanwhile, Wales have received a boost ahead of the Ireland match with fly-half Sam Costelow back in contention.