![\"stuart-mccloskey-with-ollie-lawrence\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772351168_599_.jpeg\")
\n McCloskey fends England’s Ollie Lawrence. Billy Stickland \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
STUART McCLOSKEY IS getting used to his new-found level of fame.<\/p>\n
Well, sort of.<\/p>\n
You know it\u2019s been a big Ireland win when moments from the game are quickly being spun into memes and fired around WhatsApp groups both home and abroad. In Twickenham last weekend, McCloskey\u2019s brilliant chase and tackle on Marcus Smith was prime social media fodder.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, most of those memes found their way onto McCloskey\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crazy,\u201d the Ireland and Ulster centre admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt like every time I opened Instagram for two or three days, it was just my face. My missus was laughing. I was taking the kids to school on Monday and there were people genuinely stopping cars at the side of the road to say well done. She was like: \u2018What is going on here?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAh, it gave me some big laughs, like! There was a few funny memes and clips going around. It\u2019s good. You\u2019ve got to take everything with a pinch of salt, like. The good times, like this here, will be funny I\u2019m sure.\n<\/p>\n
At some stage, I\u2019ll do something that\u2019s stupid and people will take the piss out of me. So I\u2019ll enjoy this and when it doesn\u2019t go as well, I\u2019ll just laugh it off. It can\u2019t be good all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few days on from the high of Twickenham, McCloskey is in relaxed, if somewhat self-deprecating form.<\/p>\n
The England win might be the defining game of his career to date, but days like that have been hard earned. The Ulster player made his Test debut in Twickenham back in 2016, playing well on a tough day for Ireland as Joe Schmidt\u2019s side went down 21-10. McCloskey wasn\u2019t capped again for 21 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cAh, I don\u2019t know what the craic was with Joe,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think we saw eye to eye\u2026. listen, I\u2019m glad he\u2019s not coaching here now, but he\u2019s done some amazing things as a coach. Sometimes coaches and players are not on the same page, I don\u2019t know what it was but I wasn\u2019t for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never spoke to him (about it).\u201d<\/p>\n
Last weekend\u2019s trip to the same venue marked cap number 26. Eighteen of those have come from November 2022 on, making McCloskey something of a late bloomer on the Test scene.<\/p>\n
\n McCloskey fends England’s Ollie Lawrence. Billy Stickland \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
Billy Stickland \/ INPHO \/ INPHO\n<\/p>\n
The big barrier in McCloskey\u2019s way was the form of Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw as the first-choice 12s, with Garry Ringrose often locked in at 13 \u2013 a position Aki and Henshaw also cover. And it\u2019s fair to say that even when McCloskey\u2019s provincial form was excellent, those ahead of him hadn\u2019t done anything to warrant dropping out of the Ireland team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And as an out-an-out 12, there were often times during that spell where McCloskey simply wasn\u2019t the most versatile bench option.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like I was always good enough. I\u2019ve actually been on the bench a few times since then but back then, it wasn\u2019t really the done thing to put a 12 on the bench. To be fair to Bundee, in that World Cup cycle, that year (2023), he was unbelievable so he was. He was nominated for World Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I kinda.. not resigned myself to it but even if I thought I was as good as Bundee back then, he was playing so well in the slot that it was hard to get into the team. To get ahead of him, you\u2019d have to be by far the best player in the world. I didn\u2019t think I was that. So I was resigned just to being here and working as hard as I could and wait for an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
As it stands, the returning Aki and Henshaw are the ones who will have a job dislodging McCloskey for the final two Six Nations fixtures. The 33-year-old\u2019s current form begs an obvious question: where has McCloskey made improvements in his game over the years?<\/p>\n
\u201cEh, probably my knowledge of it. I\u2019ve played over 250 professional games now so I\u2019ve a pretty good knowledge of what I want to do in attack and defence. I don\u2019t think any one area has come on ridiculous amounts, just everything has got a bit better in terms of my whole game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m probably a bit bigger than I was then (around 2016). I\u2019m 116\/117 kilos now whereas I was 107\/108. So, I just think everything has got slightly better and thankfully I\u2019m still fit enough at 33 so I\u2019m still able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smarter, stronger. Faster?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I am any quicker or if I\u2019m just staying the same. If I look quicker, I\u2019ll take that. It\u2019s probably down to the S&Cs here and in Ulster with the speed work. We\u2019re doing a lot of that, and it\u2019s keeping us in the right shape.<\/p>\n
![\"nick-timoney-with-stuart-mccloskey-as-he-is-tackled-by-sam-underhill\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772351169_240_.jpeg\")
\n McCloskey stood out on both sides of the ball in Twickenham. Ben Brady \/ INPHO<\/p>\n
Ben Brady \/ INPHO \/ INPHO\n<\/p>\n
\u201c(My times are) probably the same for the guts of the last seven or eight years\u2026 I think it\u2019s about 9.5, 9.6 \u2013 not Rob Baloucoune pace but it gets me across the ground fast enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
A week before the England win, McCloskey\u2019s teammates were calling him \u2018Aaron Rodgers\u2019 following his wonderful one-hand pass to assist a Robert Baloucoune try. As it happens, McCloskey\u2019s handling and passing skills might owe more to a different American sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love all the American sports but in terms of actually playing them? Not really. We played basketball in the gym up at Ulster. That\u2019s probably the height of it. We did that for a while, a few of us messing around but no, I\u2019ve always found off-loading not an easy skill but just something I\u2019ve picked up quite well over the years. It\u2019s always come quite naturally to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In terms of his rugby inspiration, the answer comes as no great surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cAh, Sonny Bill Williams. He was the GOAT, wasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause he\u2019s probably not that much older than me. He\u2019s probably 42 (he\u2019s 40), but you know your teenage years when you\u2019re quite impressionable? That\u2019s probably who I was watching.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Now McCloskey is the player young lads want to emulate. Having been on the outside looking in for so long, he\u2019s happy to soak up the plaudits now coming his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s nice to hear. I probably feel somewhat vindicated for all the years of slogging it out and not getting too much love, so it\u2019s been nice, but you\u2019ve got to enjoy it while it lasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese like these things don\u2019t last forever. I\u2019m 33 years of age, hopefully playing another two or three years, but I\u2019m just enjoying the moment and hopefully enjoying this good bit of form for that wee bit longer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART McCLOSKEY IS getting used to his new-found level of fame. Well, sort of. You know it\u2019s been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,3654,136638,83298],"class_list":["post-323089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-six-nations-2026","tag-stuart-mccloskey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}