IT WASN’T OBVIOUS during his school days that Joe McCarthy was going to be an international rugby player. He says as much himself.
It was only really in his last year at Blackrock College, having had a growth spurt that saw him suddenly shoot up a few inches in height, that he started to show his potential.
Even then, he finished school in 2019 without anything resembling hype around him. Trinity rugby guru Tony Smeeth saw something in McCarthy though. A shrewd judge of young players, Smeeth appreciated that McCarthy could be a real force when he started adding muscle to his 6ft 6ins frame.
And so it proved, with McCarthy playing Division 1A rugby in the All-Ireland League within months of starting college. He was picking up momentum at this stage and by January 2020, McCarthy was named in the Ireland U20 squad for the Six Nations despite still being 18.
Brian Deeny and Tom Ahern were the starting second rows in Noel McNamara’s side, but McCarthy came off the bench in Ireland’s three wins from three before Covid-19 shut down their tilt at a Grand Slam. Rugby was put on hold but McCarthy had done enough to earn a place in the Leinster academy the following season.
There was another dose of Ireland U20 frustration for McCarthy in 2021 when he missed the Six Nations due to a serious hamstring injury. It meant he played very little rugby in the 2020/21 campaign but he made the best of the setback, stacking on another five kilos of muscle towards his current weight of nearly 120kg. Men of that size are few and far between in Irish rugby.
McCarthy – whose brother Paddy shone for the Ireland U20s this year and is now in the Leinster academy – is dynamic along with the mass and even as he was rehabbing his hamstring, Leinster’s coaches knew they had a special athlete on their hands who could explode upon his return. That proved to be the case.
Having shown up brilliantly for Trinity in the AIL again, McCarthy made his senior Leinster debut in January 2022. It was hard to miss him given his stature. It was a promising debut in which McCarthy tackled accurately, carried powerfully, and looked entirely comfortable in stepping up to professional level.
Further Leinster appearances followed thick and fast. Such was his form in that initial flurry of games for his province that Ireland boss Andy Farrell called the 20-year-old into camp for three days in the last week of the 2022 Six Nations when James Ryan and Ryan Baird had picked up injuries.
“He’s an impressive young man,” said Farrell at the time. “He’s got big legs for a start!”
There was praise for how quickly McCarthy had learned Ireland’s plays and how he performed in training. Captain Johnny Sexton, who hadn’t even had the chance to play with McCarthy in Leinster yet, said he had been outstanding and even suggested he could have a rise to prominence like James Ryan’s.
By the end of that season, McCarthy had made eight starts for Leinster and come off the bench three times in the Champions Cup. Off he went on Ireland’s tour of New Zealand, starting both midweek games against the Māori All Blacks.
He was a central figure in the Emerging Ireland tour in September 2022, getting the chance to work closely with Paul O’Connell on that trip to South Africa, and his Test debut arrived last November when he came off the bench against Australia.
He had hopes of another cap in the Six Nations this year but an ankle injury ended that plan. Having needed surgery, McCarthy only returned for Leinster towards the end of last season, too late to force his way into the matchday 23 for the Champions Cup final against La Rochelle.
But with a good pre-season under his belt, McCarthy is now set for his first Test start against Italy in Dublin tomorrow as he bids to show Ireland boss Farrell that he needs the big, powerful second row in his final 33-man World Cup squad.
22-year-old McCarthy is the heaviest of the locks in Farrell’s wider group by nearly 5kg and that illustrates how he is of a different profile. His strengths are in the close exchanges – mauling, scrummaging, rucking, carrying and tackling close to the ruck. He’s the kind of ‘tighthead lock’ that Irish rugby is not famous for producing. Not that he is without handling skill or mobility. There aren’t many Irish forwards who can’t catch and pass these days and who aren’t able to use footwork before contact.
McCarthy clearly enjoys the physicality of rugby. He’s still young but he’s seen as an ‘enforcer’ type of player. The problem with looking to bring that edge of nuisance and niggle is that there’s a fine line with discipline.
In 19 appearances for Leinster, 11 of them starts, McCarthy has conceded 18 penalties, according to Opta’s data.
There were two penalty concessions on his 20-minute senior Ireland debut against Australia, both at the ruck, while he conceded four penalties in the two Māori games last summer. On the Emerging Ireland tour, there were three penalty concessions in his two starts.
Locks like McCarthy will always give away their fair share of penalties and it’s a fine balancing act for coaches who want him to really push the limit, but he’ll be looking for a highly disciplined performance tomorrow.
There’s not much doubt that he has the size, power, set-piece qualities, and close-quarters skills to be a presence for Ireland, while McCarthy has repeatedly demonstrated his ease at stepping up a level in the past three years. Now he’s aiming to show that his relatively late-blooming potential is translating into top-level ability.
Whether this 2023 World Cup is the next rung on his ladder remains to be seen but it’s been some journey so far.
