ENDA MCNULTY WATCHED Joey Carbery ‘glide’ across the turf at Soldier Field. Three nights previously he had sat across from him in a Chicago steakhouse as the boy became a man. He was just after turning 21 but here he was, as Ireland tried to hold onto a lead against the All Blacks, handed the key to the international door.
“I’d never seen confidence like it,” recalled McNulty, then the Ireland team’s sport psychologist. “It might have been his international debut; Ireland may have been under pressure against an All Blacks team seeking to avoid defeat to Ireland for the first time but Joey didn’t show fear because Joey didn’t know fear.”
Carbery has had five birthdays since but no starts in the Six Nations. That’ll change on Saturday. Again he is stepping in because Sexton has had to step out. Again this is billed as his big chance – but how often have we said that before? Chicago was the first time; moving to Munster in 2018 was the second; playing the first Test of the series in Australia the third.
He is 26 now and says he is ready ‘physically and mentally’. But how can we know? The 21-year-old Carbery didn’t know fear but the 21-year-old Carbery had never had to live through the scrutiny of the morning newspapers or the social media sewer, each place prepared to pick a player’s game apart.
The 2016 Carbery had never been seriously hurt ‘physically or emotionally’. Everything then was new. Saturday is new in the sense that he has never started a championship game although he has had to withstand the scrutiny. In Edinburgh in 2019, he was picked off for an intercept try early after coming on to replace Sexton in that year’s Six Nations Test. Later, he atoned for his sin by creating the match-changing try.
But Scotland in 2019 is a lot different to facing France in 2022, especially as it is France in Paris.
“It’s not just about Joey Carbery and it’s not just about whether he can handle a big game in the Stade de France,” said Andy Farrell today. “It’s about us as a group and as a squad and that’s what Johnny does, he makes sure that the whole group is exactly where it should be. As I said, Johnny will travel with us and be a big part of the group but at the same time it’s not just about the No.10 as far as the direction of the team is concerned. It’s about everyone that takes the field.”
But is it?
There is a standard cliché in rugby that you don’t win games unless you have a good No10 and a good No3. Everything else you can cope with, just about. But if your outhalf has a nightmare then you know how painful the post-match post-mortems will be. House private, curtains closed.
Carbery, though, insists he is up for this challenge.
“I feel like I’m ready to go, both mentally and physically,” said Carbery at lunchtime today. “Training has gone really well this week and last week was good as well. Yeah, I’m feeling really ready.”
The tone of this conversation is amusing in a way. For years and years, the conversation around Ireland has centred around Sexton. What will we do when he goes? Who can replace him? Will he last until the World Cup?
This weekend we can get a few answers. This is just the fourth time in 32 Six Nations games that Sexton has been unavailable but this isn’t like Paddy Jackson stepping in to take his place in Rome. This game has been billed as the biggest match of the championship. Win this and a grand slam is more likely to be claimed than lost.
Ireland, need you be reminded, have won the grand slam just three times in their history. So yes, it is a big deal Sexton being out – Sexton being the one who scored two tries here in 2014 to win the championship, Sexton the player who dropped the winning goal in injury time in 2018. Joey Carbery was an unused replacement that day. That tells you everything.
You could also say that was four years ago. Since then Sexton has got older rather than weaker. Carbery, meanwhile, has been plagued by injuries. His career has been one long sporting purgatory. Worried, Joey?
“I’m actually feeling very confident because we do a lot of switching in and out during training so when I was told to stay in (because I was going to start Saturday’s match), I was excited and looking forward to getting some minutes under my belt,” said Carbery.
“My preparation has been very good so with the help of Johnny and the coaches I feel like I’ll be ready to go on Saturday. I am really excited about that.”
There’s a good reason for that – because for so much of Carbery’s career, he has had to endure the opposite of excitement.
Injury after injury required the monotony of gym work and physio appointments.
That gives a player time to think, to dream of what it will be like when you are picked again. Days like Saturday kept him going during the bleak midwinters when he was stuck indoors while his colleagues were out on the paddock, honing their skills, enjoying the chance to be young and free.
So in this context, is Saturday pressure? Or is pressure wondering when you will play again?
“I think anyone who has been through a long-term injury knows how difficult it is. To have come through that teaches you to enjoy the good things in life sometimes so to be honest, I’m just delighted to be back out there, just relishing the whole environment going into such a big game.
“Having gone through that, I feel mentally a lot stronger for it.”
The kid is ready to become the delivery man.
- Originally published at 13:19