A certain lager don’t do perfect Six Nations debuts, but if they did it’s hard to think they could have bettered Joe McCarthy and his family’s night in the Stade Vélodrome cauldron.
Barely two years on from his Leinster debut, Andy Farrell’s bold selection of the man he calls Big Young Joe was thoroughly vindicated as the 22-year-old lock continually put Ireland on the front foot. He made nine carries for 32 metres or nine bone-crunching tackles, memorably driving Gregory Alldritt back when the latter had to reach for a wounded duck of a pass by Maxime Lucu.
One can only imagine the pride felt by his parents Joe and Paula among the strong Irish contingent in the steepling stands, as well as his brother Andrew, who has been installed as Leinster’s ‘Culture Captain’ this season.
Their night was completed when McCarthy handed over his Player of the Match award to his brother after the full-time whistle.
“It was hard to miss him there, he was looking like a leprechaun in the crowd, a big Irish blazer,” McCarthy laughed afterwards. “It was good to see the family after the game, it was special.”
McCarthy didn’t look remotely fazed by the occasion, and barely seemed to be out of breath after his 68-minute stint, although he admitted: “There was obviously a lot of distraction, the atmosphere is crazy, it’s hard to hear yourself think in these games. I was thinking all week, I was quite nervous in the week because it was a big opportunity, playing my first Six Nations game. I just kept going back to the process, and loads of great second rows giving me help in the camp. I just kept going back to my process and my detail.”
Whatever else, he’ll never forget his Six Nations debut, including the atmosphere.
“The place was rocking. Again you’re trying not to get overhyped, because I’ve definitely had games before where you’re too jizzed up and you might start off a bit off, so I was trying to chill as much as I could and keep the heart-rate down.”
One of the more unlikely aspects of McCarthy’s meteoric rise is that if you look at an old photo of the Blackrock Under-13s, he wasn’t especially big, and didn’t break into the first team until his late teens.
“I suppose, I never really started in school growing up so it’s kind of cool to look back at the Junior 4ths teams and things like that. Definitely a lot of people would never have thought I’d get to this spot. It’s cool, but I just need to keep looking forward, there’s plenty more to do.”
Not surprisingly too, McCarthy’s energy and irreverent attitude had an infectious affect, perhaps most of all on Tadhg Beirne. He had had played more minutes than any of his team-mates this season and had looked weary of late. But, galvanised like others back in this Irish team, Beirne produced his best performance of the season, adding to his three tries at the World Cup to augment his calling of the lineouts, where Ireland won all 13 of their throws, providing the launching pad for all of their five tries.
“He certainly was ‘Big Joe’ out there,” said Beirne. “He was physical, he did exactly what everyone was hoping that he would do and everything that we expected him to do. He does it in training, he’s so athletic and credit to him.
“What a first start in the Six Nations for Joe. There’s a lot more to come from him for sure,” Beirne added, which is both true and remarkable to think.
