Imagine how it was to be Joe McCarthy, rugby fanatic, 21-years-old, sprinting across the pitch at the Aviva Stadium, 51,000 pairs of eyes watching his every stride. Imagine that sense of anticipation, a lifetime’s hopes and dreams condensed into the time it took him to cross the width of the pitch, to position himself in the middle of the Ireland huddle as he expected to come on as a sub for the injured James Ryan.
Imagine that excitement as he allowed his eyes to dart across at the golden shirts of Ireland’s Wallaby opponents and then imagine the embarrassment when the player he was meant to replace glanced in McCarthy’s direction to say: ‘I’m grand’.
As time has passed, and the caps have accumulated, McCarthy has been able to turn this anecdote into his party piece, even if his face did redden on that November day when he was forced to run all the way back to the replacements bench, the hollers and cheers of the Ireland fans accompanying his every step.
Yet if there is a lesson to this little story it is this, that no rugby player has the power to write their own script. And even though he is only 24, McCarthy possesses all the self-awareness to know this. After all, when he was a third year in school, he wondered if there would even be a prologue, never mind a book, as he struggled on Blackrock College’s fourth XV.
“He didn’t have the career laid out in front of him like a lot of other lads did,” Dan Sheehan, his Leinster and Ireland team-mate, recalled after McCarthy made his name in a Six Nations win away to France in Marseille. “He was probably always an underdog.”
Being a late developer can be a good thing. You learn to appreciate things more when you get your chance.
He certainly was. He didn’t break into the first team until his final year at school, giving up the game at one point – albeit for just a fortnight when he “missed it so much” – that he had to come back. Meanwhile, all his peers were being selected for Leinster and Irish under-age sides while he stayed at home. “I was gym-ing loads, trying to eat as much as I could but then never really made it,” McCarthy later recalled of those teenage dirt track years on the edge of obscurity.
Yet being a late developer can be a good thing. You learn to appreciate things more when you get your chance. Ask Sheehan about that, or Hugo Keenan, two men who travelled a similar route.
In any case, McCarthy possessed a quiet determination that would soon catch Leo Cullen’s eye, the Leinster coach turning up to the pitch adjacent to the Aviva Stadium on a Friday night in November 2021, to watch an All-Ireland League game between Lansdowne and Dublin University. McCarthy was just 20 at the time, back in action for the university side after a six-month lay-off to repair a hamstring injury, the time out used to add six kilos of muscle to his 6ft 6in frame.
The following week, McCarthy was training with the Leinster first team, and within two months he was making his debut for the province in Cardiff, putting in a performance that prompted Andy Farrell, who was watching from his hotel room at Ireland’s training camp in Portugal, to ask: ‘Where did that big lad come from?’
The answer is from unusual stock, his parents being Cork and Tipperary people, from deep in Munster’s heartland. Work brought them to Dublin via New York – where McCarthy was born – and rugby, an obsession of their three boys, then brought Joe to Blackrock College, a breeding ground for future Ireland players.
He is well put together. He’s strong. He’s a good young fella, he wants to learn, he wants to listen
In any case, Farrell liked what he was seeing. He phoned him with an offer to join in with Ireland’s training. “I had planned to go away (to see a friend in Barcelona),” McCarthy recalled. But Farrell offered him something better. “Oh, I’m good to come in,” McCarthy told him. His friend in Spain had to wait.
Soon he was travelling again, to New Zealand for Ireland’s 2022 summer tour, playing twice against the Maori. That autumn he was flying south of the equator again, this time to South Africa, for an Emerging Ireland tour. Next came his premature sprint across the Aviva pitch where he hoped to get his debut against the Wallabies. And then the moment he announced himself to the rugby world, when he tore Shaun Edwards’ defence plans to shreds in Marseille in the 2024 Six Nations opener.
“Joe is a big, oul’ man,” was Tadhg Furlong’s assessment of his Leinster colleague after that Six Nations debut. “He is well put together. He’s strong. He’s a good young fella, he wants to learn, he wants to listen and it’s been great working with him.”
The secret was out. McCarthy’s ball carrying soon made him a marked man, reducing his capacity to be as consistently dominant. Yet other attributes came to the fore. “I like defence sometimes more than attack,” he said, referencing his love of the NFL, name-checking a couple of hard men: Max Crosbie, JJ Watt.
Farrell was instantly a fan, starting him in every one of Ireland’s 11 games in 2024, nodding in agreement when the IRFU selected him to be one of their chosen few to be placed on central contracts, all ahead of picking him for this upcoming Lions tour.
He makes big moments with his carries, and for a guy his age he’s a very mature player. He has definitely developed.
And you can see why he likes what he sees, Ireland traditionally lacking a big enforcer, a Will Skelton or RG Snyman type, someone who can break lines, bully the opposition in mauls, throw his weight into a scrum.
This is Rob Herring, Ireland’s hooker: “Having him scrumming behind you is unbelievable. For a young guy he’s really honed his craft at scrum time, and he’s consistently delivering massive work behind us. Then there is his athleticism around the park as well. He makes big moments with his carries, and for a guy his age he’s a very mature player. He has definitely developed.”
Then again, he had to because the element of surprise disappeared pretty quickly, opposition teams placing a target on his shirt.
His response has been admirable, as he spoke about evolving his game, delivering this quote: “What gets you here won’t get you there”.
He began to notice teams were scouting him, noting what he was doing in the lineout; hitting him with a few more double shots whenever he carried. So he started to observe the best practitioners in the world in his position and learned from them.
“It’s nice when you come in and people don’t know you as much,” McCarthy said last year. “They don’t know what kind of areas you have in your game, so you can probably get away with it a bit more.
I always like having the ball in my hands. It must be a bit of ADHD or something.
“You definitely have to keep evolving your game to stay ahead of the opposition. I always like having the ball in my hands. It must be a bit of ADHD or something. When I’m at home, my brother would be passing the ball around and offloading, stuff like that. I find that’s the best way, always having a ball in your hands. It helps.”
The thing he really wants in his hands now is a trophy, any trophy, because for all his advancements, the selection for the Lions, the 19 caps, the victorious 2024 Six Nations campaign with Ireland, he has yet to win anything with Leinster, losing three Champions Cup finals, and three URC semi-finals before Saturday’s dismantling of Glasgow.
“To win a bit of silverware would probably give a bit of confidence to the group, a bit of feel-good, because I think if you go again with no silverware there’s a bit more pressure on,” he said recently.
“We don’t need outside pressure, there’s a lot of pressure on ourselves to try to win a trophy, so we’ll be gunning now for the URC, 100 per cent. The lads are so hungry in the dressing room. I’ve no doubt we’ll be back again.”
Still that young man in a hurry.
