Gutting.

Ireland loosehead prop Andrew Porter has opened up about their Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand for the first time in some comments that will hit hard with fans of the men in green.

Andy Farrell’s side came into rugby’s showpiece event ranked as the number one ranked team in the world, and Six Nations Grand Slam champions, riding an incredible run of form.

But the wheels once again came off in the last eight, with Ireland crashing out to an All Blacks side that they had beaten twice in New Zealand the previous summer, securing a first-ever series win on their soil.

Porter has admitted the defeat was the lowest point of his career.

“I’m still trying to come to terms with it in my own head. It was gutting, I have never felt that much of a low in my career,” Porter told The Rugby Pod.

“There was huge hype and expectation and just the energy that was at home and all the fans that had travelled over from Ireland to create that unbelievable, special atmosphere that I have never witnessed before.

“All that linked in together and built up really, really high and then it’s like a roller coaster, it’s bang and it felt like you were just at the bottom.”

It’s been over a month since that defeat but Porter, who returns to URC action with Leinster this weekend, said he’s still dealing with sleepless nights.

“I came home and thought great, a different environment, but I had too much time with my own thoughts. You start playing everything back in your head, thinking of everything you could have done differently and done better,” Porter added.

“I was really struggling being at home after being in such a great environment with all those incredibly special people for so long – I didn’t want to do anything, I just wanted to be by myself.

“At the end of something like that, there isn’t really a debrief – no real closing the book on it. I have had to deal with sleepless nights, things playing over in your head, that kind of thing. It’s just part of the game we play. We were so close so that is why it was a bit more gut-wrenching.”