ANDY FARRELL HAS backed Joe McCarthy to deliver against France after naming the 22-year-old Leinster lock in his starting team for Friday’s Six Nations opener against France.
McCarthy has just five caps to his name and has never featured in a Six Nations game, but will line out alongside Munster’s Tadhg Beirne in the Ireland second row for Friday’s round one fixture in Marseille.
His selection is a major vote of confidence from Farrell, with Leinster co-captain James Ryan named on the Ireland bench for just the fifth time in his 59-cap Test career.
McCarthy has been in superb form for Leinster since returning from the World Cup and Farrell feels the 6’6″, 112kg lock will relish the opportunity to test himself against a powerful French pack at the Stade Velodrome.
“It’s not post World Cup, it was during the World Cup as well and before that actually,” says Farrell.
“It’s what we see in training and progression etc, and what the other lads see also.
He’s a young fella that’s on a mission, he’s there to take his chance and his opportunity when he can, and he tends to do that most days.”
The other big call in Farrell’s starting team sees Calvin Nash start in place of the injured Mack Hansen to win just his second Test cap.
“It’s a reward for him coming into camp, understanding what that job looks like for him within our team, and going away and working on those bits, and he’s been very good at improving most parts of his game, actually.
“I mean it’s a given, isn’t it, regarding his work rate, etc, but his work off the ball and his work with ball in hand and finding a way to make a difference and be that extra link in attack has really come on leaps and bounds.
“Again, all you need in life is an opportunity, and it’s a big one for Calvin.”
Farrell confirmed Garry Ringrose has returned to Ireland with the squad’s three panellists – Oli Jager, Sam Prendergast and Cian Prendergast – due to a shoulder injury. The Ireland boss is not yet sure if Ringrose will recover in time for the second round clash with Italy on 11 February.
Friday’s meeting with France sees Farrell opt for a 6:2 split on the Ireland bench for the first time.
“It’s what we feel is the right thing for this game. We all know it’s going to be a war of attrition, set piece is premium in any game that you play against France, they’re big men, the size of their pack, and they’re very accurate as far as the set piece is concerned, but not just that, with where we’re playing, the conditions and the type of game that France can also play in the broken field.
We think it’s going to be a fast game as well, so if you look at our bench, the power and pace that we’ve got within that pack to come on and finish the game strong is something that we think will work in our favour this time around.”
With France missing a number of frontliners, the sense from the Ireland camp is that Friday presents a prime opportunity to start a new Six Nations campaign with a statement win.
“Well, the exciting thing for me is are we brave enough, have we got enough courage to go and do what we said we’re going to do and obviously we’re playing against a world, world class side,” Farrell said.
“But taking your opportunity and being the best version of ourselves is the expectation that we have of ourselves, so living up to that is going to be demanding for us but if you want to be successful, if you want to try to be the best, then you’ve got to beat the best in places like this and the occasion doesn’t get much bigger.
“We’ve got to relish those types of occasions and go after them.
“It’s mouth watering, isn’t it? It will be a great game to watch, there’s no doubt about that and the stadium, the atmosphere, it being the first game of the Six Nations after a World Cup, if you can’t get excited about that as I keep saying, you’re in the wrong place.
“For us, it’s just living up to our own expectations, we expect to perform on the big stage and it doesn’t really get any bigger than this one.”