AS THE son of an army man who served in the UN, Fergus McFadden’s early days took in a year in Israel and a year in Tanzania. Serious memories, as he describes them. It was while on safari during the latter stint, when aged 11, that he and his older sister, Sally-Anne (then 15), opted for a tent one night separate from their parents and younger sister.
“Tarangiri was the name of the park. My parents took the hut, but we wanted the tent with the steel bars. During the night, all of a sudden I got this shove. ‘Sal, listen. Listen’. And we could hear this tapping against the outside of the tent. She jumped in beside me and this went on for about 45 minutes.”
The following morning they told their parents about this during breakfast. A waiter overheard, made inquiries and informed them there had been lions in the camp that night. “The tapping had been the lion tapping his tail against the tent. It’s just as well we didn’t know,” he concludes, laughing. “Not all the memories are that vivid.”
Fitting into the routine of regular school life at Clongowes after that wasn’t easy, he admitted. In the Israeli and Tanzanian international schools “it was all about activity and getting up and walking around and doing things. In Clongowes, my parents were called in for numerous meetings and were asked ‘what the hell’s wrong with him? He won’t sit down’.”
Rugby saved him, and another, earlier abiding memory is being taken to Lansdowne Road in the corner where Mick Galwey scored a try in the 1993 win over England, and receiving an accidental slap on the head in the ensuing celebrations. “I started crying and went into a huff,” he recalls with a laugh. I always remember that.”
Born in Kilkenny and reared on the Curragh, McFadden returns there for the open spaces and peace and quite, and on a recent walk there filled his phone with photos. “It was like being in the Antarctic.”
His dad, Tim, was also an openside flanker. “My old man never hesitates to bring up the last time UCG won the Connacht Senior Cup and he was on the team. After the Connacht game we went to relations for dinner, and he whipped out a picture of him and pointed to Fergal O’Gara, Ronan’s dad, who played on the wing and Jonjoe O’Reilly, and all these fellas. As a back, I’m always saying I must have got my skills off my mum (Eleanor) so.”
Yet prior to Clongowes, McFadden predominantly played Gaelic with Suncroft and Kildare minors. In Clongowes initially, he was the smallest in the team and “a bit timid”, before taking to the game. Along with his dad, McFadden credits Clongowes’ Adam Lewis and Kevin West as other major influences. He made the schools’ senior cup team, alongside Rob Kearney, and endured a final defeat at Lansdowne Road to Blackrock.
After playing for the Irish Under-19s in the World Cup in South Africa in ’04, McFadden earned a scholarship to UCD. “It was just a perk for me, it wasn’t like a way of becoming a rugby player. In a way it kept me out of trouble. But after a year in the academy I started getting a few Leinster A games and I saw how well Rob was doing.”
Last season marked a huge upward graph in his year, and he continues to impress with every opportunity. A talented all-round player, he’s a good ball-carrier, especially in tight confines, with a good kicking game (and a place-kicker). With a bit more awareness and by dint of taking his defence to another level, McFadden could have a big, big future.
No less than Shane Jennings, Jonathan Sexton or the rest of them, McFadden is itching for a game tonight. Since featuring in Leinster’s first five games of the season, and starting in three of them, his only appearance was in the defeat away to Dragons in early December.
Indeed, he has appeared more for Leinster A, 19 times, than Leinster (18 games) and his seasons are a bit of a mish-mash of Old Belvedere, Leinster A, Leinster and Ireland A. “Patience is an attribute you need to have in that scenario,” he reasons.
“Gordon and Brian are there, and they’re obviously two of the best centres in the world. You have to be optimistic. If you’re not you may as well go off and work in an office.”
It helps he enjoys training every day and learns, especially from Brian O’Driscoll. “He’s extremely competitive. He’s hard on himself, and also he’s got a timing that not many players have. Even when running decoy lines, his timing is on the money.”
It’s worth noting McFadden already has eight Ireland A caps, including an excellent Churchill Cup campaign last summer, and – as the Seán O’Brien case underlines – being a perceived understudy to a provincial front-liner need not be that far away from the Irish team either.
Besides which, for all his professional ambition, he’s a Leinster boy and if he wants to make it anywhere, he wants to make it here. “That’s why I train every week. This is the only team I want to play for.”
