‘If Joey Carbery doesn’t fancy Ulster Rugby that’s his loss’

Former Ulster and Ireland flanker Neil Best has said that Joey Carbery's decision to move to Munster instead of Ulster next season is his loss.

Carbery announced on Thursday that he would be signing for Munster next season ending months of speculation linking him with a move away from Leinster. The 22-year-old fly-half was initially linked with a move to Ulster to replace Paddy Jackson after the player had his IRFU and Ulster contract revoked last month but will now head to Munster next season to partner Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray in the province's halves. Best tweeted: "If @JoeyCarbery doesn’t fancy @UlsterRugby that’s his loss. We’ve a fine young 10 in @Joni_mcp to get behind #SUFTUM" https://twitter.com/Best6Analysis/status/1002195282921115649 Ulster are still looking for a replacement to Jackson and last week the club were linked with South African fly-half Elton Jantjies as a possible replacement. Jantjies will start for the Springboks against Wales in Washington D.C. this weekend but his potential move to Ulster was blocked last week by the IRFU because he is not an Irish qualified player. The IRFU has the final decision on player recruitment and it rebuffed Ulster's plans to bring the Lions playmaker to Belfast. Ulster's Player of the Year John Cooney said that incumbent fly-half Johnny McPhillips had been brilliant for the province this season and that he just needs to add a bit of size next season. As a back-up plan, this could be a winner. Conney told us:

“Johnny is a quality kicker as you saw against Munster and that would be his strong point, he has been brilliant and he is they type of player that knows all his detail really well which gives the players confidence," said Cooney. "He will be telling you all the time what to do and what you are meant to be doing in certain scenarios, I think he has been brilliant and we just need to get him into the gym. "I always slag him he needs to put a bit of size on and I’ll take him to do his extras in the summer and do a few curls.”

Many Ulster fans have raved about the former Ireland U20 outhalf since he broke into the first team and he does have the potential to go on and play Test rugby. Once Cooney gets back from his tour to Australia with Ireland a his few weeks of R&R on a beach, Operation Bulk McPhillips Up will begin in earnest.