Ian Madigan: All set to fly, but ready to put in a shift at scrumhalf

Ian Madigan missed the All-Ireland final celebrations. He was busy.

Some of the Dubs are pals. Cian O’Sullivan was a year ahead of him at Blackrock College, Michael Darragh Macauley a few more. He played alongside Rory O’Carroll at underage in Kilmacud Crokes. Jonny Cooper marked him when they played Na Fianna. He’s good friends with Paul Flynn too.

“It was a shame not to be there. I love going to watch the Gaelic or the hurling,” he says. “It was really tough conditions, but I really enjoyed watching it; a really tense game.

“I always learn something from them whenever we catch up, something about their training, seeing how professional they are. They are a phenomenal group.”

Still, Dublin felling Kerry "under slate-grey skies" last Sunday barely penetrated the St George's Park cocoon in the middle of middle England, the middle of nowhere really. Just the environs Joe Schmidt wanted before hectic weekends at Wembley, east London and the eventual return to Cardiff.

All the while, Madigan has been relearning old skills. Older brother Dave is a decent scrumhalf who worked with Ireland’s third-choice nine during their summer holidays. He was told to sharpen his fundamentals, just in case.

Exposure

When it was suggested that Madigan might get some exposure in his sibling’s slot against

Romania

, Joe Schmidt said: “It is one thing that we might do. We want him to get game time at 10 and we want Paddy [Jackson] to get game time at 10. We will do one of two things: we’ll let Eoin [Reddan] continue and withdraw Ian and put Paddy up, and we got Conor [Murray] on the bench, who can come into nine anyway. We feel like we got really good cover at nine and 10 either way.”

So three things really.

“If we think the game is going in a direction where we think Ian would benefit from 15 minutes at nine, that’s possible,” Schmidt added.

Imagine the worst-case scenario – the Madigan brothers already have – as France launch their huge reserves and Conor Murray is a victim of the guaranteed attrition. There’s walking wounded all over the field. Eoin Reddan gets smothered by Vincent Debaty. Madigan goes to scrumhalf.

“Dave was a senior cup winning scrumhalf with Blackrock in 2004,” says the younger Madigan. “Then we played AIL [All-Ireland League] together in Blackrock. He played scrumhalf and I played outhalf. I had some good conversations with him during the summer. He was going through the fundamentals and what he thought was important. He gave me some pointers on what he used to rely on when he felt under pressure. Just simple things with passing and box-kicking.

“I’ve had some great chats with Eoin and Murray as well. They have been so generous with their time and giving me advice if it did come to it.”

Tips

He adds: “When I was away on holidays with Dave, we had the ball out practising off the base, giving me a few tips, just like the old times back in school.

“It’s a position I know I won’t be perfecting . . . A big part of playing scrumhalf is playing within what you have prepared that week, listening to your outhalf, listening to the forwards. If I go in with that mentality, I am confident I will be able to do the job sufficiently well.

“I’m not going in there to make scintillating breaks, pulling off big plays, I’ll go in there and facilitate the guys around me, similar to what I do at outhalf. If those opportunities present themselves, well and good.”

Spoken like a true convert to the church of Joe. Madigan, like Simon Zebo, was the antithesis of a Schmidt player not two years ago. The pair suffered as a result, but through that cathartic process they didn’t so much curb as hone their natural instincts to now wear the pivotal creative numbers this Sunday at Wembley against Romania.

Madigan was a rare talent at Blackrock, in that he was already the senior cup outhalf in transition year. That’s usually the mark of a future international. Like Luke Fitzgerald. Brian O’Driscoll only made the bench in fifth year.

So, more often than not, the 26-year-old was the most skilful player on the field. He was the unpredictable one, the one to not get picked on a Joe Schmidt team. But he evolved, adapted, and here he is.

“No game is the same, no phase of play the same, so you have to trust your instincts,” he says. “The reason we are selected at international level is because the coach believes our instincts are good. That’s something I will certainly rely on if I have to cover [scrumhalf].”

Long time coming

In Madigan’s head, playing at a

World Cup

has been a long time coming, so he wants to shine.

“Working with expectation is something I have dealt with since I was 10 years old, playing minirugby,” he says. “Driving in the car with my Dad and my brother, I would be thinking: ‘I’m going to score five tries today.’ I’d put that expectation on myself. That was the same when I played with Kilmacud Crokes, and that expectation was bigger when I went to Blackrock College.

"When you are playing in a club like Leinster, that expectation is huge. It's something I have experience in going into games when there is a lot of expectation on me and the team. It's something I feel I have adapted to well. It's something I embrace going into big games."

Madigan has failed so much that he no longer fears it. That’s where the calm comes from, all those kicks and passes that went awry steeled him.

“I can remember a few years ago when we were playing Connacht and I got blocked down early, and before we knew it we were 10-0 down in the RDS,” he says. “I remember standing in behind the posts and I’d been guilty, I’d been blocked down and they had scored a try.

“I remember just being unbelievably calm. Leo [Cullen] was our captain, he just said go back to our processes, stick to the plan we laid out before the game. We managed to grind out a win. If things don’t start well, I’m certainly not going to be panicking.”