Another boost for Ireland as prop signs new deal

NEWS: Ireland and Leinster Rugby have announced that Andrew Porter has signed an IRFU contract which will see him play his rugby in Ireland until at least July 2025.

Andrew made his Ireland debut against the USA in June 2017 and has gone on to win 40 caps since for his country.

He featured in four of Ireland’s five games in the 2018 Championship grand slam season and played in all five on Ireland’s games at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

He was initially selected to tour with the British and Irish Lions in 2021 but was subsequently ruled out with injury.

Having played the majority of his international rugby at tighthead Porter made the switch to loosehead at the tail end of 2021 starting all three games of the end-of-year series at loosehead.

Andrew made his Leinster debut against Benetton in 2016 and has represented the province on 82 occasions scoring 13 tries.

With Leinster, Andrew has won a EPCR Champions Cup (2017) and four PRO rugby titles (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

David Nucifora, IRFU Performance Director, commented: "Andrew worked incredibly hard to transition from loosehead to the tighthead role and has shown the same dedication and application to revert back in recent months.

"He has proven his credentials on the tighthead side and took a big step during November to show that he can be a force at international level on the loosehead side.

"It will be exciting to see how his career progresses over the coming seasons."

Meanwhile, Porter added: "It is a really exciting time for Irish Rugby with both Ireland and Leinster in a good place and with ambition to get better.

"It was fantastic to have crowds back in the stadiums over the past couple of months and it makes a huge difference to the players on the field.

"Hopefully we will be back to full stadia in the months ahead."