After a breakthrough campaign with Leinster in his first season in professional rugby, Joey Carbery has spent most of his second season acting as an understudy to Johnny Sexton.
Carbery, the apprentice, spent most of the last campaign with Leinster and Ireland trying to learn off the master, Sexton, wherever and whenever he could but that relationship has now changed.
The apprenticeship is no more.
In one foul swoop Carbery went from willing student to the guy that is now gunning for the role of the teacher, and if he’s not, well then he certainly should be.
Sexton has nothing to worry about just yet. The 32-year-old has just enjoyed a season where he has been nominated for the EPCR Player of the Year as well as the Six Nations Player of the Championship.
Meanwhile Carbery started just one game at fly-half for Leinster this season and his performances in last year’s tour of the US and Japan left a lot to be desired.
Carbery is merely a blip on Sexton’s radar heading into this summer’s tour of Australia but over the next two seasons as Sexton starts to age, and Carbery begins to receive more time at fly-half for Munster, a competition should begin to develop. At least that’s what Joe Schmidt would hope for.
Watching how Carbery’s move to Munster affects his standing with the national team will be fascinating.
Remember, it only took Sexton one year to break into the Ireland team after he first replaced Felipe Contepomi at Leinster.
Ronan O’Gara won Ireland a Grand Slam with his famous drop goal against Wales in 2009 and less than one year later and he had been dropped for a 24-year-old Johnny Sexton in the 2010 Six Nations. It can happen that fast.
At present, you’d be very brave to back Carbery ousting Sexton over the next two seasons but the young playmakers’ move to Munster marks a signal of intent. The learning is over and the competition is about to begin.
“I’ve come to the decision purely based on rugby,” Carbery told RTE Sport of his decision to move.
“I want to go down there and get the opportunity to be playing at 10 a lot more.
“I know that if I can get into the rhythm of games, I know how good I can be so I’m really excited for the opportunity. I’m going down to a great team with a great set of coaches.
“It’s been tough. Leaving my friends and family and the things I’m comfortable in. But I’ve made this decision purely based on rugby and I’m a professional rugby player. So I’ve got to do what’s best for my rugby and I know things can be great down there.”
Things can be great for Carbery at Munster. He is going to a side that are a contender in both the PRO14 and in Europe.
He will have great attacking options outside him in Andrew Conway, Keith Earls and Chris Farrell, the best scrum-half in the world inside him in Conor Murray and he’ll be playing under an extremely promising coach in Johann van Graan.
He’ll also have a big forward pack in front of him, one of the best defences in Europe behind him and most importantly an extended run of games at fly-half.
A player of Carbery’s ability is too good to have biding his time on the bench.
Jack Conan’s try against the Scarlets highlighted why he needs to play and at Munster he’ll have the chance to play in games that actually matter and not in matches where his side are leading by 20 plus points with less than 20 minutes to go.
The fly-half position has been a weakness for Munster since Tyler Bleyendaal’s neck injury and in Carbery the province will get a player that will attack and look to bend the opposition’s line.
Remember, for all the lethargy Munster’s attack showed against Racing in their Champions Cup semi-final defeat, this was still a team that averaged 24.7 points per game in 23 games under van Graan and 32.1 points per game in his first 10 matches in charge of the province.
For all their struggles at fly-half, this is still a team that has managed to put points on the board and should continue to do so with Carbery marshaling the attack.
The 22-year-old has spent the last two seasons at Leinster picking Sexton’s brain, quizzing him on the training pitch and seeking his advice in analysis sessions, but ultimately he wants to become one of the world’s best players and as long as Sexton can maintain his current level of performance, he simply would not have received the opportunities to chase that ambition at Leinster. At least not at fly-half.
“The thing that’s probably the most (important) is just how much I want to achieve,” said Carbery at the end of last year.
“I want to keep getting better and hopefully, maybe become one of the best players in the world.
“That would be my ambitions so if I can keep improving every day and getting better at certain things then will keep me grounded and that makes me want to work harder.”
Carbery may one day become one of the best fly-halves in world rugby. His chances of achieving that goal may improve at Munster.
But to steal a line from the great Ric Flair “to be the man you’ve got to beat the man.”
Johnny Sexton is very much still the man in Irish Rugby but Carbery’s move to Munster shows he’s no longer just a boy.
He’s his own man, with his own team and some very big challenges ahead of him, not least challenging Johnny Sexton for the Ireland jersey.
Easier said than done but for Carbery it’s no longer about talking. It’s time to start playing.
