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Ireland's Joe McCarthy: 'I was subbing for the junior fourths team'

Joe McCarthy at the Rugby World Cup with Ireland (Photo by Harry Murphy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Promising Ireland forward Joe McCarthy has spoken about his initial difficulties making his way in the game, revealing that as a teenager he was only good enough for the bench at his school’s junior fourths rugby team and that he even quit the sport for a few weeks the year after.

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The 22-year-old attended Blackrock College and his enthusiasm for rugby wasn’t matched by his on-field exploits until his final year at the Dublin school.

Only then did things eventually fall into place and he stepped on the accelerator that has since won him seven Ireland Test caps, including a run off Andy Farrell’s bench in the recent Rugby World Cup quarter-final loss to the All Blacks.

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Jacques Nienaber on evolution and why he left international rugby

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      Jacques Nienaber on evolution and why he left international rugby

      Former Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber has given his first Leinster press conference and at it spoke about how big a role family played in his decision to leave Test rugby. He also spoke about evolution and how it will take a while to get things right at Leinster.

      Ahead of the upcoming Guinness Six Nations, which has a February 2 start for Ireland away in Marseille, McCarthy has reflected on his career progress and his backstory is a lesson for teenagers everywhere not to lose heart when not getting picked.

      The Leinster lock told the latest edition of Rugby World magazine: “I meet people from school now and they are kinda shocked that I’m playing professional rugby,” he explained.

      “I mean, I wasn’t even near the junior cup team. I always loved rugby and had a drive to get better. I really wanted to be on the first team the whole time but I was on the thirds.

      “I was always trying to push on but it never happened. I remember the summer before the junior cup. I was eating loads, trying to bulk up, gymming like crazy and I didn’t even make the squad. I was absolutely gutted.

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      “I ended up finishing the year coming off the bench for the junior fourths. I was subbing for the junior fourths team. We won our cup competition with the fourths. It wasn’t the highest level but it was still a trophy. I came off the bench in the final, but then the following year I was nearly giving up rugby altogether.

      “That lasted a few weeks. I was saying to myself, ‘Jeez, am I getting screwed over by coaches here? Is there any point in playing rugby?’ I’d put in the effort and I wasn’t anywhere near it and I was kinda considering giving up.

      “But without rugby, I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I went back. I was gymming loads, every day after school. I’ve always loved the gym, to be fair.

      “I loved the physical side of the game and being able to dominate in contact and in sixth year it started to happen for me. I made the first team. I stuck at it and, eventually, it came good.”

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      Soliloquin 1 hour ago
      Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

      I don’t know the financial story behind the changes that were implemented, but I guess clubs started to lose money, Mourad Boudjellal won it all with Toulon, got tired and wanted to invest in football , the French national team was at its lowest with the QF humiliation in 2015 and the FFR needed to transform the model where no French talent could thrive. Interestingly enough, the JIFF rule came in during the 2009/2010 season, so before the Toulon dynasty, but it was only 40% of the players that to be from trained in French academies. But the crops came a few years later, when they passed it at the current level of 70%.

      Again, I’m not a huge fan of under 18 players being scouted and signed. I’d rather have French clubs create sub-academies in French territories like Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia and other places that are culturally closer to RU and geographically closer to rugby lands. Mauvaka, Moefana, Taofifenua bros, Tolofua bros, Falatea - they all came to mainland after starting their rugby adventure back home.

      They’re French, they come from economically struggling areas, and rugby can help locally, instead of lumping foreign talents.

      And even though many national teams benefit from their players training and playing in France, there are cases where they could avoid trying to get them in the French national team (Tatafu).

      In other cases, I feel less shame when the country doesn’t believe in the player like in Meafou’s case.

      And there are players that never consider switching to the French national team like Niniashvili, Merckler or even Capuozzo, who is French and doesn’t really speak Italian.

      We’ll see with Jacques Willis 🥲


      But hey, it’s nothing new to Australia and NZ with PI!

      109 Go to comments
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