JOE MCCARTHY HASN’T so much thundered up the ladder of professional rugby as flown straight past it on his way to the highest level.
This is a fella who only made his Leinster debut in January of last year. He has started just one Champions Cup game.
McCarthy’s Ireland debut came a year ago. The 22-year-old has four caps for Ireland.
And yet, he will feature in a World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand this Saturday night in front of around 80,000 people at the Stade de France.
With James Ryan ruled out due to injury, McCarthy takes his place on the Irish bench and he’ll be tasked with adding energy and physicality in the second half as Ireland attempt to secure their place in the semi-finals.
McCarthy has experienced nothing like this before. He was involved in the Champions Cup final in 2022 but only got four minutes off the bench in Leinster’s defeat to La Rochelle.
His most important appearance for Ireland so far has been a 19-minute cameo on debut against Australia last November. He impressed against Italy and England in the World Cup warm-ups over the summer, and again in the World Cup opener against Romania, but this weekend will be at another level altogether.
Ireland are confident the 22-year-old will step up. They had another option as the back-up lock in Ryan Baird. While he has been playing at blindside flanker recently, Baird started in the second row for Ireland in their Grand Slam-sealing win over England only a few months ago. With 15 caps to his name, Baird was the more experienced option for Ireland.
McCarthy gets the nod, though, and it was telling that Farrell was talking about him even last week when asked about the decision to bring Iain Henderson into the second row and drop Ryan to the bench for the Scotland game.
“Big, young Joe McCarthy is part of the equation as well,” said Farrell. “The competition for places in the second row is exactly where it should be and they all know that.”
Farrell likes the energy and attitude McCarthy brings. The Leinster man is a bit of a dog on the pitch, a relentlessly annoying presence for the opposition and a huge man who knows how to throw his weight around. He is not just about size, though. McCarthy has adapted well to the demands put on Ireland’s forwards around ball-handling and work-rate off the ball.
Farrell first called him up for a week during the 2022 Six Nations and even after that brief stint, the reports were positive. They brought him to New Zealand last year and McCarthy played in the two midweek games against the Maori All Blacks. His discipline was a concern that Ireland’s coaches flagged but they liked everything else.
The Leinster man benefitted from working closely with Paul O’Connell on the Emerging Ireland tour last year and his Ireland debut last autumn was the culmination of lots of progress behind the scenes.
McCarthy had a fine pre-season this summer and after those sharp warm-up performances, he got a big chance against Romania in a team that was otherwise close to full-strength. He took his opportunity in a try-scoring performance and, crucially, he has been training strongly ever since.
But for Ryan’s injury, McCarthy might not have played again in this World Cup but now he is building up for a quarter-final.
“He’s been brilliant,” said Ireland lock Tadhg Beirne today. “His head is so screwed on for such a young guy. His willingness to learn is unbelievable. For the size of them, he is such an athlete as well. You would be amazed at how easy he is to lift in the lineout for the size of him.
“He is an incredible athlete, he works extremely hard and he is always one of the best trainers as well. It’s no surprise to see him rise the way he has and I feel like he is only going to get better.”
Meanwhile, the versatile Jimmy O’Brien gets his chance in the number 23 shirt this weekend, replacing Stuart McCloskey after the Ulster centre impressed off the bench against Scotland last time out.
Farrell said that given the disruption with the injury issues for Mack Hansen and James Lowe, Ireland felt it prudent to have specialist back three cover on the bench.
O’Brien is a specialist at covering a few positions. He’s a class fullback, a clever left wing, a flexible right wing, and a fine outside centre. He only has seven caps but has already played in three of those positions for Ireland.
Though he’s still relatively inexperienced in Test rugby, O’Brien played 54 minutes against the Springboks on his debut last autumn, which was at outside centre. He played the full 80 on the left wing against Australia two weeks later, as well as doing 40 minutes at fullback in the Grand Slam-sealing win over England.
O’Brien has earned trust in a short space of time. Farrell revealed today that he hadn’t been available for the opening two games of this World Cup due to a shoulder injury he picked up during the warm-ups. O’Brien’s return to fitness in recent weeks has been timely, with the injury concerns for Ireland’s wings meaning O’Brien was the ideal choice at 23 against the All Blacks.
Farrell called O’Brien “unbelievably smart, nice and cool and calm and collected,” which neatly sums him up. O’Brien gets his World Cup debut in the biggest game yet and like McCarthy, there is great confidence within the Ireland set-up that he can deliver when called on.
Shameful stuff today from guys who backed themselves into a corner with their “a shag the league it’s all about may 22nd” talk. No touch no pride and no balls. Yet again Kingston is silent post match. I wish tipp well but they beat nothing.
Is it not just a case of cork not having the hurlers
It’s a very worrying time to be a cork fan. We use to be a period dual county challenging for final and hurling honours every year. Now we will be lucky to get one day out in croke park a year. Before we know it we will be like Offaly reliving part glories
Problems stem from county board
Excuse me Offaly are on a winning streak!
County teams thrive when town teams go well. When the town clubs struggle the county struggles… Bar Dublin that’s the fact of the matter that the gaa needs to tackle
Cork reaping what they sow. They neglected underage structures, assuming that they would just find hurlers, like they have always done in the past. Have sorted it out underage now though, won a clean sweep of underage titles last year, u14,u15,u16 so the sleeping giant is waking up, might take 20 years to come through but then watch out.
Kingston read the first half of the book on sweepers. Extra man back, mop up ball ala DeBurca, other defenders just hold off Tipp forwards. But once the sweeper actually got the ball he was clueless. No idea how to utilise the possession up front. No idea how to pick out an out numbered forward. Hitting balls to team mates in the middle of the park, that were in 50/50 positions at best. Painful stuff to watch, Tipp never had to break a sweat and just picked off the easy points
Spot on and it’s destroyed club hurling as well.
Black mark also against Cork juvenile “supporters” for persistant jeering of Tipp freetakers. Where did that example come from?
It was a hard day to hurl with the wind and rain but having watched the game I think Tipp can go a long way this year .
Tipp on a dry day will be better
Shambolic. And I bet .. To add insult to injury Frank Murphy told them that they were only getting ham sandwiches no butter and to make their own way home..
The sweeper system work in that the didn’t concede a goal but my god how brain dead were they using a sweeper for our own puck outs. I would be surprised if we won any of our own puck outs.
I’m sure cork people aren’t interested in the opinions of a Kilkenny man, but here goes. Certain teams ( not just Cork) are applying these new tactics in hurling , sweeper system , flood the break down areas etc…..but it doesn’t get away from the fact the two most successful teams in the last number of years Tipp and KK still stick to the standard positions in Hurling . When Cork were last successful playing more of a running/ short passing game , it was still 15 on 15 , with each player in a battle with his opposite man with the belief that if you won the majority of the battles you won the match … And I think it still stands true today.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it .
As a Cork man I am more than happy to hear your opinion. In fact I agree with you 100%. We have a suspect defence, and a very good forward line – until new players come into our defence to improve it I would much rather we try outscore teams and leak scores than deprive our forwards and play a muck brand of hurling. Sweeper systems may suit Clare, WFord etc, but I know Cork fans are horrified at the thought of us having it. And as you said, KK and Tipp don’t use them. I just hope we stop using it and start playing our own brand again.
Something seriously wrong with Cork GAS.
With this sweeper abomination hurling is danger of turning into that awful snore fest lacking basic skills that is Gaelic football
Cork GAA.
The rot starts with Murphy, Cork’s President-for-life.
How bloody boring is gaa. Every day on rte news they go through all the boring divisions of minor this and that. Has a disproportionate coverage.
Shock horror biggest sport in the country gets lions share of the coverage. Don’t turn on sky news for fear your head will explode
am i the only one who thinks it was a good idea for Cork to continue with the sweeper. The cork backline needed to be shored up and the more time William Egan gets in that role the better he’ll get, Cork would’ve been destroyed had they not used a sweeper. it’ll take time for this Cork team to fully acclimatise to the sweeper system but they’ll be better for it.
There are an amount of that Cork team not good enough for inter county hurling. Cork will not contest for major honours again for a very long time irrespective of the system they play.
Hurling needs Cork to play the old game and consign this negative ‘sweeper’ system to history. It’s just an admission of inferiority in the traditional skills and when Cork go down that road it’s fair to say that Hurling is in serious trouble.
I’m hoping that the big two, Tipp and Kilkenny beat the daylights out of the ‘sweeper’ counties, who are having great, but boring, games against one another and at least we’ll see some serious Hurling this year.
Same conditions for both teams but in saying that Cork are very poor.
This ‘sweeper’ fad is destroying open hurling.. If you can pick off points and take your frees you’ll win. Goals win games and create excitement. Obviously winning is everything for inter county teams but sacrificing excitement for results is ruining the game for spectators.
The better team will win the majority of the time but the fans want open, exciting and if possible goal fest hurling.. If this trend continues I can see more armchair spectators …
Well done to Tipp senior and intermediate teams. Having witnessed majestic Cork teams down through the years it’s sad to now see a Cork senior hurling team that’s afraid to play hurling.