IT WAS A match in 2019 when Trinity played Cambridge in the annual friendly between the universities that it started to become really clear that there was something about Joe McCarthy.
He was still just 18 at the time, only a few months out of school. He had started the season playing for Trinity’s U20s but the senior team needed a lock. Tony Smeeth, Trinity’s long-serving director of rugby, gave McCarthy a shot and the big second row never looked back.
That day at College Park in Dublin, Cambridge’s second row was made up of former Wallabies captain James Horwill and ex-Springboks lock Flip van der Merwe, with 98 Test caps between them. But neither of them was the best lock on the pitch.
Playing alongside Alex Soroka, who is also with Leinster these days, McCarthy was outstanding.
“Joe and Alex played in the second row for us, it was like old rugby against the young lads,” says Smeeth.
“We beat them and Joe was just… I think James Horwill knew what he was looking at, Joe just smashed him every time he got the ball.”
Having been unheralded up until this point, McCarthy excelled in the AIL that season and played for the Ireland U20s despite being a year young. There was a big hamstring injury in the 2020/21 season but really, it has been a meteoric rise since with Leinster and now Ireland. Today, McCarthy will make his World Cup debut against Romania.
It’s impressive going for a young man who hadn’t looked like being a star rugby player during his school days at Blackrock College.
McCarthy was on Blackrock’s C team in third year and then went into the development squad for fourth and fifth year. But he shot up a few inches in height before his last year in school and, suddenly, he was elevated into Blackrock’s Senior Cup panel.
“He came into our group and it meant that he was very raw,” says Justin Vanstone, the senior team head coach at Blackrock.
“His decision-making wasn’t great and some of his technical skills needed a lot of work but at the same time, his work ethic and that sort of growth mindset stood out.
“He was full of questions, in a nice way.”
McCarthy was a starting second row as Blackrock lost to a strong St Michael’s team in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup quarter-finals in 2019. Back then, he was listed as Joseph McCarthy on the teamsheets.
McCarthy’s progress has been helped by having two brothers who are big on rugby too. His older brother, 26-year-old Andrew, plays tag rugby with the special needs team Seapoint Dragons and is a huge supporter of Joe’s.
Younger brother, Paddy, is now also part of the Leinster set-up having joined the academy this summer following his impressive performances for the Ireland U20s. Paddy, 20, is already earmarked as a big prospect for Ireland at loosehead prop.
“They’re very competitive and very supportive at the same time,” says Vanstone of the McCarthy brothers.
“Paddy would have learned a lot from Joe, who is an excellent role model for anyone. Paddy is now going down that line and he’s a fine young player as we’ve seen for the U20s.
“So there’s a healthy competition but more than anything, there’s such a strong line of support that runs through that family. It shows a lot in Joe.”
His parents, Paula and Joe, hail from Tipperary and West Cork respectively and though Joe was born in New York when his dad was working there, they returned to Ireland when Joe was three. Dublin is home.
Like his older brother, Paddy is a big man. The McCarthy’s size and physicality help them to stand out. Joe is 6ft 6ins and over 120kg.
“He’s like his brother, he’s almost got this Polynesian strength, almost like a natural farmer strength,” says Smeeth.
“Joe is incredibly physical and he’s a good athlete. He wouldn’t be a Ryan Baird-type athlete, they’d actually be total opposites.
“Ryan [who also played with Trinity] would have crazy stats, he’s so athletic in the air, whereas Joe is that real right lock who is going to play at around 125kg and Ireland just don’t have men like that.”
Vanstone recalls how McCarthy returned to school a few months after graduating and had stacked on muscle over the summer months after training hard with Paddy to push on to the next level.
Smeeth and Vanstone both describe McCarthy as an understated character but reports from Ireland’s World Cup camp suggest that he has well and truly come out of his shell. His team-mates describe him as someone who brings fun to the environment.
“When he was in school, Joe would quietly go about his work but I think what’s happened is that he’s found an environment he’s really comfortable in now and he’s got a lot more belief in himself based on his body of work of the last few years,” says Vanstone.
“He’s getting incredible coaching and information in Leinster and Ireland but also from those players he’s surrounded by. I’d imagine when he first started, he’d have been watching and listening but clearly now he’s more comfortable and they’re seeing that side of him.”
Whatever about his nature off the pitch, McCarthy is something of a savage on it. Ireland boss Andy Farrell likes that about him. Farrell wants that kind of dog in his team.
It has meant that McCarthy has been prone to giving up penalties at times, but his discipline is something he has worked very hard on.
“He plays on the edge and that maybe worried me at the start but you have to remember Joe is still 22,” says Smeeth. “He throws his body into things.”
McCarthy’s two former coaches are also keen to highlight how diligent he is in his approach to rugby. The second row is a good student too, doing very well in his Leaving Cert and now being close to finishing a degree in Global Business.
Vanstone also flags how McCarthy was always thankful for how his coaches helped him. He returns to the 2019 quarter-final defeat for an example.
“Joe was one of the guys who sent us a message afterward to express his gratitude even in his disappointment of being beaten,” says Vanstone.
“He never forgot the work that was put into him as a player. That’s a snapshot of Joe.”
McCarthy’s desire to keep getting better has been obvious to both since the big lock moved on up the Irish rugby ladder.
“Ireland have a lot of skill and whereas Joe might have been a little bit awkward on the ball, he has really worked on that,” says Smeeth by way of example.
Vanstone explains that McCarthy’s lines of running have improved, with the 22-year-old picking smarter angles, while he enjoys watching how hard McCarthy works to get back in the game after making a tackle.
They’re in agreement that McCarthy is only getting started. There’s more to come from a young man who never looked like reaching these heights when he was in school.
In that sense, McCarthy is similar to current Ireland team-mate Hugo Keenan, another Blackrock alumnus, who was famously on the D team at one stage in school.
It obviously helps to be in a rugby nursery like Blackrock, but Vanstone says McCarthy’s rise is a prime example of the door never being closed.
“You have to have your eyes open to those players that will develop their skills later, develop physically later, maybe come in from other sports,” says Vanstone.
“Brian O’Driscoll is the classic example from Blackrock. He did very well in school but I don’t think anyone would have expected him to reach the levels that he did when he was so young. This was before my time but I watched his quality in amazement from afar.
“Joe and Hugo are just huge success stories for all the boys and girls who stick at the sport they love or even change into a new sport. There are still opportunities for them and coaches need to keep their eyes open, not close the door to them at a young age.”
