If any Irish player is going to make a splash at this World Cup then it could well be Joe McCarthy. At 6′ 6″ (1.98m) and 18st 8lbs (119kg), the 22-year-old is certainly built to make one, and although he is the youngest and rawest squad member something about McCarthy’s career trajectory suggests this World Cup may be a benchmark for him, the start of his time.
It’s clear that Andy Farrell and Paul O’Connell had earmarked the 22-year-old for this tournament from a long way out, bringing him on both the New Zealand tour and playing him in both Maori games, as well as the Emerging Ireland tour.
Injuries have restricted him to 19 caps at Leinster, with just 11 starts and one of those in the Champions Cup, and he came into this season with just one Irish cap to his name, namely the last quarter against Australia in November.
Yet after providing a strong 80-minute effort against Italy in the first warm-up game, McCarthy made a genuine impact off the bench in the last 28 minutes against England. The highlights were manhandling Courtney Lawes and winning the turnover off a restart which led to Keith Earls’ try.
It’s incredible to think that a raw 22-year-old, indigenous lock of McCarthy’s size had been ranked above a current member of the current Springboks squad. Now, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if McCarthy was earmarked for a similar impact role against South Africa.
That he was put up in front of the media on Monday, where he was very at ease and engaging, is a strong indicator what McCarthy will feature against Romania in the Stade de Bordeaux next Saturday.
“I remember the 2015 World Cup,” he recalled, when 14 at the time. “I was talking to my friends saying ‘Jeez, we will be in college for the next World Cup’. And to think that I would be in the next one is still quite amazing. I would never have thought I would be able to represent Ireland at a World Cup. It’s seriously cool.”
Four years ago McCarthy had just graduated from Blackrock College into Trinity, mixing AIL rugby with the Leinster sub-academy.
McCarthy studied global business full-time for three years, and having split his final year over two years is entering the second half of his final year.
Playing for Trinity in the secondrow alongside Harry Sheridan, now making a splash with Ulster, in Division 1A of the AIL was “huge” for his development, both for the season before Covid hit, and then afterwards when playing about 15 games in the 2021-22 season.
“They are fantastic, especially when you’re young. It’s straight into senior rugby, it’s physical. And in the AIL, it’s class. When you are with Ireland and Leinster you’re in a system the way you play to show your strengths, but in the AIL you can try a few things, practice these little skills, try a few things that maybe other coaches would give out to you, where you have more licence in your club team. Tony Smeeth and Hugh Maguire especially were fantastic for my development.”
Now, at 22, he’s being coached by some bloke called Paul O’Connell.
“I don’t think there is anyone better to be honest. He’s unbelievable to work with. You just hope a bit of him rubs off on you, how diligent he was in all his prep, he might scout you and pick you up on the smallest thing and train you every single lineout lift, every jump, every breakdown.
“You have to be 100 per cent on it or he’ll pull you up on it. He’s unbelievable to work it, he really understands the players. And, yeah, you just know you are learning from the best.”
Even McCarthy admitted that the World Cup looked something of a pipe dream for him as recently as 18 months ago.
“You’re never really looking too far ahead but World Cups _ you get very few opportunities to have them. They’re every four years, so you’re looking at that and I’m like ‘If I don’t make this one, it’s a long time until there is another opportunity to make it.’ So, I had thought about it for the future, but you never really looking too far ahead. I was just delighted to get the opportunity.”
McCarthy, like everyone else in the wider 38-man squad, learned of his inclusion or not the day before the Samoan game in Bayonne, France.
“It was sort of just towards the end of the Samoa week, Faz was kind of telling the lads if you were in or not. I was absolutely delighted the coaches trusted me to pick me in the squad. I just rang my parents, they were delighted to find out, and my brothers. They were just really happy for me. It was a very cool moment, I must say.”
He confirmed that his squad mates have been slagging him about his Munster roots. “My Dad (Joe) is from west Cork, Castletownbere, and my mum (Paula) is Tipperary, Cashel. We loved going down to west Cork especially, we used to spend the summer there, my Dad and brother were down there, we used to spend the whole month of August down there when we were younger. And go to Cashel a good bit as well.”
Along with his younger brother Paddy (20), who recently converted from tighthead to loosehead on the Irish under-20s Grand Slam and World Cup final team, the love of rugby was honed in Blackrock College.
“We’d always be wrestling a good bit, me and Paddy. Rugby is huge, my other brother Andrew (26) plays tag rugby with a special needs team (Seapoint Dragons).
“It all started in Stradbrook, playing all the age grades up, me and my brother especially, we’d watch rugby together, watch games on TV, Super Rugby in the mornings, watch the internationals if the All Blacks play in the mornings on Saturdays. All that, it’s been a huge part of our lives. My parents would haven’t have played rugby now.”
So all consuming could rugby become that his younger brother actually calms him down. They’ll all be in the Stade de Bordeaux on Saturday if he is in the “23″, and of course there’s always the distinct possibility of the two brothers packing down in the same Leinster and Irish packs one day.
It’s a possibility that inevitably has been discussed between the two. “Yeah, especially now that it is more realistic now. We’ve never played together, he’s two years younger than me. We’ve definitely talked about that. It would be class if we get an opportunity to do that.”
