Ulster star the 'nearest thing Ireland ever had to an accomplished NFL player'
Stuart McCloskey is the nearest thing Ireland has ever had to an accomplished NFL player - and that's official. Robert Baloucoune proclaimed him the Aaron Rogers of Irish rugby, a reference to Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback following his scoring pass to the winger against Italy.Tommy O'Brien anointed his 60-meter chase down of Marcus Smith last week as something straight from a tight end's or safety's playbook.McCloskey isn't offended at all, quite the opposite: “Yeah, I love all the American sports but in terms of actually playing them? Not really, although we played basketball in the gym up at Ulster."That’s probably the height of it. We did that for a while, a few of us messing around but no, I’ve always found off-loading not an easy skill but just something I’ve picked up quite well over the years. It’s always come quite naturally to me.”Aaron Rogers is fine but McCloskey looks to an offloader in his own sport, Rugby Union albeit a player who was a superb Rugby League operator too.“Ah, Sonny Bill Williams. He was the GOAT, wasn’t he? He was unbelievable. I probably grew up watching him. He was probably the most influential in terms of that side of the game, watching him doing it.“Because he’s probably not that much older than me. He’s probably 42 but you know your teenage years when you’re quite impressionable. That’s probably who I was watching.”All hail so to the Irish hero of Twickenham 2026; it was a different story under Joe Schmidt in 2016, mind you, when McCloskey was thought by many to be have Ireland's best performer in a 10-21 defeat."I don't think he agreed with that," shrugs McCloskey who was dropped, practically banished, for the performance. "Ah, I don't know what the craic was with Joe. I don't think we saw eye to eye....listen I'm glad he not coaching here now, but he's done some amazing things as a coach."Sometimes coaches and players are not on the same page, I don't know what it was but I wasn't for him. I never spoke to him about it."This, by the way, was McCloskey's Ireland debut, something to be remembered fondly and to be proud of."Probably not, I remember it as a great day and it's amazing to get your first cap but I probably look back on it with a tinge of...I'm trying to think of the right word. It's not anger, but it's tainted for me."I had to wait another 18 months to get another game and I wasn't sure 100 percent why. It's water under the bridge, I can't really change much now."Meanwhile, looked at in the cold light of day and teamsheets, there was another 'miss' for McCloskey when having played the first three games of the 2023 Grand Slam he disappears off the teamshheet for the last two."Yeah, I played 80," he says of the third game, which following on from Wales and France, was against Italy in Rome. "And then I think I had a bit of a calf tear that week or the week after."Bundee came back in, he'd been on the bench, coming on playing quite well, so it was obviously just an easy straight swap and I think you saw what he did from there on into those last two games and then into the World Cup. He was unbelievable."So it was a low point in some ways, but there's not much you can do about it. I did my job, I did well. It wasn't as hard mentally because I felt I'd done fairly well. That whole year I started South Africa, started Fiji, started Australia, won all those, came in the Six Nations, won the first three games."I think the coaches were happy with what I did, and for Bundee to come in and do what he did for the next probably guts of 18 months, there probably wasn't a great deal I could have done.He says he has the medal 'somewhere': "I don't even know if it says Grand Slam. To be fair to Faz and all the coaches, the management team, they did a photo of us all afterwards, Grand Slam winners, all out on the pitch."It's real nice, all the management, all the players that were part of it. It's up in the attic but I'm sure I'll hang it up at some stage."McCloskey is 'hoping' to be selected for next Friday night's game against Wales, he has experienced the notion that nothing is certain in an uncertain world before...Want to see more of the stories you love from Belfast Live? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add Belfast Live as a preferred source, simply click here.Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the latest sports news, headlines and top stories
