WHETHER OR NOT Joe McCarthy goes to the World Cup, his future with Leinster and Ireland is clearly bright.
The 22-year-old lock furthered his case for inclusion in Andy Farrell’s 33-man World Cup squad with a powerhouse performance in Ireland’s warm-up win over Italy last weekend. While it’s wise not to overvalue things we see in these games, McCarthy’s influence on his first Test start was notable.
Farrell and Ireland forwards coach Paul O’Connell have had to be a little patient in unleashing McCarthy. An injury during the Six Nations didn’t help his progress and also spoiled his Leinster season, with McCarthy left out of the Champions Cup final matchday 23 having only recently returned from his ankle issue.
With a full pre-season in Ireland camp under his belt, McCarthy was in explosive form last weekend as he showed exactly what he offers with his huge frame. The Leinster man is 6ft 6ins and looks heavier than the 119kg that the IRFU has him listed at.
McCarthy’s power was evident from the opening exchanges in Dublin, with his first carry of the game showing his threat.
While he gets slowed up eventually here, McCarthy’s acceleration into contact helps him get over the gainline. It’s also worth noting how he changes his line at a late stage, taking him to the outside of Italy inside centre Tommaso Menoncello. McCarthy identifies the sliver of space between the Italian centres and goes at it smartly.
He made 11 carries in total on Saturday and showed a combination of sheer power, good decision-making, and relentlessness with his leg drive. McCarthy is said to notch remarkable scores when Leinster test their players’ power output, which is no surprise when you’ve seen him play.
In the example below, McCarthy spots the space left close to the breakdown as Italy fold around the corner in defence. He makes a good decision to pick and carry.
His acceleration is sharp and he fires up a fend on Italy openside Manuel Zuliani, then shows good fight to eke out more metres in contact as Ryan Baird and Keith Earls assist, the Ireland wing taking out the Italian tackler’s right leg to destabilise him.
McCarthy finishes his positive contribution with an offload off the deck to scrum-half Craig Casey, who had been out of the game after an earlier carry himself.
Perhaps the most eye-catching of all of McCarthy’s carries was his effort just before Cian Healy’s try, which we see below.
McCarthy has just come from a big Irish maul effort, which is really fatiguing, but we can see the power he generates into two Italian forwards.
Crucial is how he slows his feet before taking the pass from Caolin Blade, ensuring he’s not receiving the ball in a static position. McCarthy is good at this, timing his arrival onto the ball consistently well.
There’s little subtlety in the actual carry as McCarthy hammers into two Italians and dominates the collision, firing those big legs of his aggressively after the first contact. Again, he’s assisted by a team-mate targeting one of the tacklers, Healy in this case smashing into Sebastian Negri and ‘tackling the tackler’.
It almost goes without saying that the more big call-carriers you can have on the pitch, the better, particularly when they’re as big as McCarthy.
Chief among McCarthy’s other highlights in this game were two efforts at the defensive maul. He very nearly earned a turnover in the 20th minute as he fought through the Italians to target the ball.
As we see below, McCarthy shows great timing and alertness to break into the ‘seam’ between the jumper and front lifter. He’s looking to dislodge the ball instantly here while simultaneously forcing his way into a spot Italy don’t want him.
Ideally for an attacking maul, that seam between jumper and lifter is completely watertight but McCarthy floods through and when he’s in the position below, Italy know they’re in trouble.
Lineout jumper Negri has transferred the ball to ‘receiver’ Federico Ruzza, and McCarthy battles to get at it.
He swings his right arm up and over Negri…
… and at the same time destabilises Italian tighthead Simone Ferrari, who ends up very upright.
McCarthy is fighting for the ball at the same time as completely ruining Italy’s maul shape, meaning they can’t go forward even though McCarthy is still the only Irish committed to the maul.
Ruzza recognises the danger of McCarthy’s proximity to the ball and starts to pull out of the maul, at the same time as McCarthy now swings his left arm up and over onto Ruzza.
Ruzza realises he won’t get fully clear of McCarthy’s grasp but that the Irish lock doesn’t actually have the ball itself wrapped up just yet.
Ruzza makes a good decision to get to ground as quickly as possible as he bids to keep McCarthy’s hands off the ball. As we see below, McCarthy does his best to wrap it up even after going to ground – desperate to win the maul turnover – but Ruzza just manages to squeeze it back on Italy’s side.
There’s no turnover but it’s still outstanding maul defence from McCarthy as he destroys the Italian platform and causes panic in their pack. Without momentum, the Italians have to kick the ball away two phases later.
This effort from McCarthy foreshadowed what was to come later in the game, with McCarthy pulling off a successful turnover in similar circumstances.
McCarthy breaks through the same space as before and this time picks the ball off before Negri has even got it into Ruzza’s hands.
This brilliant steal led directly to Caelan Doris’ second try at the end of a sweeping passage of Irish play.
McCarthy obviously offers ballast in maul attack too and while he does jump well in the lineout, it was no surprise to see Ireland using him in mauling positions where his power could be useful.
His lineout skills continue to develop. Working closely with O’Connell is one huge advantage of being in Ireland camps and McCarthy got further time with him on the Emerging Ireland tour last year.
McCarthy jumped for one lineout win against Italy, while also doing some good lifting, as for Baird’s crucial lineout steal just before half time.
It starts a powerful single lift from McCarthy at the front of Baird, with Doris joining at the back after Baird is in the air, helping to stabilise him while he’s up there.
McCarthy is known as a strong scrummager and he combined superbly with Tadhg Furlong on the tighthead side of the Irish scrum in the second half.
Watch below as the combination of McCarthy and Furlong power forward on the right-hand side of the scrum.
It’s key to stress that every scrum is a collective effort and there’s no doubt that McCarthy and Furlong don’t deserve all the credit here, but it was impossible not to see that their side of the scrum was extremely powerful when they were on the pitch together.
Of the two second row slots, the tighthead side is regarded as the more physically taxing given that the tighthead prop in front of them is under more pressure, being bound by opposition front rows on either side. That’s why you tend to see the bigger lock on the right-hand side of the scrum. It’s another string to McCarthy’s bow.
As befits his status as the ‘tighthead lock,’ McCarthy was also heavily involved in the attacking rucks. Despite being busy as a ball-carrier, he had more ruck arrivals than any other Irish player with 28, according to Opta’s data. It’s an important job for every single player on the pitch.
In defence, McCarthy brought great energy as he completed all eight of his tackle attempts. The pick of the bunch was this show of linespeed in the Ireland 22.
Not only does McCarthy race off the defensive line here, he follows the linespeed up with an excellent read of Italy’s sweep pass, showing agility to react and swim beyond the passing player to tackle centre Juan Ignacio Brex.
It’s an excellent bit of defence, with McCarthy’s tackle opening the door for Cian Prendergast to jackal, but Italy had been playing with penalty advantage.
Another green tick for McCarthy was his discipline, which has slipped on previous occasions in green jerseys. He’s a player who will always live on the edge as he looks to hassle and disrupt the opposition, but McCarthy was largely on the right side of the line last weekend.
Rather annoyingly for him, McCarthy was hit with one offside penalty in the 77th minute as Italy attacked close to the Irish tryline. It was a marginal call.
Otherwise, McCarthy was squeaky clean but simultaneously destructive on a night when he highlighted why Farrell and O’Connell rate him.
