Anyone that witnessed Joey Carbery in action for Clontarf in 2015/16 could tell you the lad was going far.
Leinster fans that attended The RDS to see Carbery make his senior debut, in September 2016, against Treviso would have walked away raving about his potential.
Sean O’Brien had been training with Carbery when he was in the province’s academy set-up and, ahead of last season, he made a big statement. As Ronan O’Gara recalled on The Hard Yards:
“Players recognise his talent. It’s the same in Leinster, you ask Sean O’Brien.
“12 months ago, he said ‘Yeah, Carbery is the man, he’ll play’. That’s because players want him on the pitch.”
Carbery made his Ireland debut two months after lining out for Leinster for the first time. He helped steer them home in that historic victory over the All Blacks at Soldier Field. Three weeks later and he was starring at full-back in a superb, dogged victory over Australia.
He was destined to challenge Johnny Sexton for the Ireland 10 jersey. And then three things happened.
- Had a poor outing as starting outhalf against the United States
- Sustained a leg injury and was sidelined for three months
- Sexton had a cracking comeback after a difficult start to the Lions Tour
There would be no challenge to Sexton’s jersey. Not yet anyway.
Instead, Carbery has been tasked with filling in at fullback for Leinster and he has performed excellently. No performance he puts in is absolutely perfect but the good stuff – the magical, off-the-cuff plays – far outweighs the errors.
With Paddy Jackson withdrawn from the fray and Tyler Bleyendaal not Irish qualified until 2018, Schmidt is giving Carbery another crack at the No.10 jersey and it is great to see.
There’s no doubt that Saturday’s clash with Fiji will be a massive test. Carbery will be in the field and making split-second decisions against a slew of huge Fijian players that will be intent on putting the squeeze on. At Ireland’s team announcement, Carbery said:
“I’m loving it [at outhalf]. I’m loving that I’m getting my hands on the ball a bit more. Having Kieran [Marmion] and Stu [McCloskey] alongside me should make my job a lot easier.”
Ireland will be aware that Fiji have to be physically bested before they can start opening up so Carbery will have to show some keen tactical awareness and recognise when to leave the ball in tight with the forwards. He will also be keen to set Ireland’s big midfield and interesting back three loose so it will be all about playing the right cards at the right time.
Sexton is still king but Carbery has the potential to be a Beauden Barrett-type [early Test-playing days] for this Ireland team and this is a great chance to show he can control a game.
