JOEY CARBERY IS moving to Bordeaux today.
One of the first things Carbery will miss from home is RTÉ’s Olympic coverage, to which he has been glued like most of the rest of us.
He loves Nhat Nguyen. He can’t wait for the athletics. He didn’t realise he was a fan of canoeing until he watched Liam Jegou’s brilliant, agonising final run on Monday. “I didn’t really know the rules at the start but you got to grips with it just watching it,” Carbery says.
That bodes well given the cultural and linguistic changes that lie ahead for the former Munster out-half along the banks of the Garonne over the next two years.
But there has already been a bigger adaptation closer to home, where Carbery and his wife Robyn last month welcomed to the world their first child. With a name like Beau, the youngfella should thrive in his new home.
Robyn and the baby will follow Carbery over to Bordeaux once Beau’s vaccines and passport are sorted.
“I don’t know if you can see how tired my eyes are but everything else is going pretty well,” Carbery smiles.
All except for his efforts to learn French, that is. “Not great,” Carbery says. “Not great.”
Funnily enough, keeping your streak alive on Duolingo slides down your list of priorities when you become a dad for the first time.
“I’ve been trying to do podcasts on Spotify as well as DuoLingo and the drive down to Limerick (from Athy) used to help me out with that because I’d be able to put on a podcast and listen to it.
“But no, everyone says, ‘Jump in the deep end when you get over. The first six months will be difficult but you’ll get to grips with it quite quickly.’ So, I’m looking forward to that.”
Carbery has already been over to Bordeaux twice and has his new home all but ready for Robyn and Beau’s arrival. His new employers, Bordeaux Bègles, were extremely helpful in “getting everything sorted for me on the ground”, he says.
After recovering from the thumb injury that put paid to his on-field Munster farewell (“I suppose for it to end like that, it kind of summed it up,” says Carbery, still frustrated), the 28-year-old is fit to begin pre-season training with Yannick Bru’s side on Monday week.
He’s unsure if the same can be said for Bordeaux’s incumbent 10, Matthieu Jalibert, who suffered a season-ending hamstring tear against Oyonnax on 8 June. Carbery last spoke with Bru and co. in May and will find out upon his arrival if he is to immediately take the reins at out-half ahead of pre-season games with Pau and his former side Leinster.
But during his last conversations with Bordeaux’s coaches, it was made clear to Carbery that his new club sees him not only as a challenger to Jalibert’s shirt but as a live option to compete for the starting fullback jersey.
This visibly excites him.
“I think playing 10 or 15 on that team with that backline would be immense so I’m looking forward to having a taste of both and maybe playing a bit more at 15.”
Asked for further thoughts on the prospect of transitioning on a longer-term basis to fullback, the position to which former Leinster coach Stuart Lancaster famously felt Carbery was best suited, the Athy man says: “Yeah, to be honest, if that’s where I was picked, I’d be more than happy to stay there. I do really love 15.
“I think the freedom you get from it, especially playing with the right team…
Like, I played 15 back when I was playing with Johnny (Sexton), back in Leinster, and like it was just an incredible backline to play in. The players we had around, it made my job so much easier. But I’ve also been on the other side where you play 15 with probably not the best backline and you don’t get much of the ball, you might touch it twice in a game.
“So, I suppose that’s the difficult side of playing 15: you don’t get as much involvement unless things happen. But I think the way the [Bordeaux] backline lines up, to me it’s very exciting because if you’re at 15, you get a lot of ball, a lot of touches. So, if the opportunity came around, I’d grab it with two hands.
I’m looking forward to getting out there and, when there’s nothing on, being able to give it to the likes of [Damian] Penaud and other guys like that and just being able to go, ‘Look, you do your thing.’ I think it’ll complement the way I play a lot, that way, rather than being quite structured.
“I’m hoping, touch wood, everything goes well and I can just get a run of games. Like, when I’ve got a run of games, that’s when I’m at my best and I know I won’t get injuries as much because you’re more likely to pick up injuries when you’re playing here or there and your body’s not used to the hits and the impacts.
“I’m just hoping to put a fresh start down and get a run of it.”
Carbery flirted with the idea of retiring from rugby during Munster’s URC title-winning season, a period in which virtually nothing went right for him on the field and he grew a distaste for the game off it.
It wasn’t until last autumn that the proposition of starting again somewhere else began to tickle his fancy. Like waiting for a bus, it wasn’t just Bordeaux who registered their interest in the out-half but several clubs across both France and England.
In the end, though, the prospect of playing in that exhilarating Bordeaux backline proved the most alluring, and so too did the idea of working once more with their attack coach, Noel McNamara.
“That was a big factor, actually,” Carbery says. “He reached out quite early. Even when he was down with the Sharks last year, we were chatting when we were down with Munster.
“I crossed paths with him at U19 and then he was in Leinster when I was there as well. He was helping me out a lot with kicking and passing and everything. I did a good bit of work with him, so he’s a huge reason why that decision was made.
“For me to go over and to have the attack and backs coach English-speaking, as well, is such a soft landing for me. And he’s such a great fella as well.
“I can’t wait to work with him because when I did work with him previously, I loved the way he thought. He’s an incredible coach and I can’t wait to see what happens.”
Still, it won’t be easy as Carbery heads for Dublin Airport today. He’s gutted that an annoying, three- or four-week thumb injury cut short his chance to say a proper goodbye to Munster fans on the field.
His farewell to his teammates, meanwhile, which began at an end-of-season part, has been extended across the summer on account of Wedding Season. Indeed, Carbery has been waved off by some lads three or four times at this point. But he hopes to welcome a few of them to his new home during downtime over the next couple of years.
“It’s been really nice to say goodbye, but obviously really tough.
I think that’s the hardest thing about leaving Munster for me: I got to go in every day and a lot of them are my best friends now. So, it’s pretty hard to say goodbye to working with your best friends every day.
“But I think, look, I’ll stay in contact with them, we’ll be home every now and again, and I’m sure a few might come out to me, so…
“It’ll be sad but I think it’s the right thing.”
Joey Carbery spoke with media as an ambassador to Budweiser, Official Beer Partner of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
