CARBERY FINALLY MAKES HIS MOVE
MUNSTER MOVE IS A BOOST FOR SCHMIDT
JOEY CARBERY only decided on a move to Munster hours before the deal was announced yesterday — and he admitted his head was ‘fried’ by the saga over his future. The Leinster star will move south for next season, but said details on the length of the contract were still being worked out when he spoke to the media yesterday. ‘I feel it’s been a tough few weeks,’ said the 22-year-old. ‘My head’s been a bit fried, trying to get all my cards on the table,’ he said confirming the proximity of the World Cup influenced his career choice. ‘That’s a decision he’s made,’ said Joe Schmidt, whose intervention along with IRFU performance director David Nucifora reportedly drew an angry response from Leinster. ‘Apart from him catching up with me, which was nicely photographed, I’ve left him to it,’ he said, referring to a photograph of the two which
appeared on social media.
He will be going to Japan playing regularly
THEY were not the words of a man who just hours before had decided to strike out in an exciting new direction.
‘It’s still pretty new to me, this whole thing has come up pretty quickly,’ said Joey Carbery, speaking as a Munster player of only a few hours’ standing.
‘I do feel comfortable that I’ve made this decision and I can get on with it now, and it will get easier with time.
‘It’s still quite raw at the moment but I’m happy that I made the right decision.’
Carbery spoke in the manner of a man coping with a shock that has turned his life on its head.
And that seems an accurate summation of recent weeks in his young life.
It has been tirelessly recounted: the arrival of Joe Schmidt and David Nucifora at Leinster trainhalf ing days before their European Cup semi-final against Scarlets.
The precise nature of the exchange that followed remains contested, but the topic was the futures of Carbery and Ross Byrne, and their possible involvement in Ulster’s need of a new out half.
‘The initial conversation with Leo (Cullen, Leinster head coach) and myself and David Nucifora was not the best timing for any of us,’ Joe Schmidt said yesterday.
The Ireland chief was occasionally testy in addressing an issue that has emphasised how the balance of power sits in Irish rugby.
‘It certainly wasn’t where I wanted to be at the time but I had a job to do. All we asked was if there was any interest for Ross or Joey to go up to Ulster.
‘Ulster at the time were looking for a foreign option (at out half). They needed to know before midday the following day and so we had to see if there was any chance at all if any of our local No 10s were interested.
‘If there was no interest then it was probably a different story. There was a bit of interest from Joey at the time.
‘He mulled that over and I think he got an approach from Munster in the interim and it digressed then into a different conversation.’
Munster and Ireland are the winners in this arrangement. The former get the high-quality out they palpably require. Schmidt’s Ireland get a player who will be going to the World Cup playing regularly in his prime position next season. The extra game-time with Conor Murray is an added bonus.
Leinster lose out, even if their loss is softened by the excellent performances of Byrne this season.
Where Carbery sits in the arrangement is a matter of perspective. He is leaving the best team in Europe, probably the best team Irish rugby has produced in the professional age.
From that height, any move is down. He is, though, guaranteed regular rugby in inter-provincial matches and in the Champions Cup, and if he maintains his form he will go to Japan in the autumn of 2019 as the established cover for Johnny Sexton.
In an ideal world, would he stay at Leinster?
‘I don’t know. It’s tough,’ he replied. ‘An ideal world would be that I’d be the best No10 in the world, didn’t have to train, a lot of different things.
‘I don’t know. My friends live in Leinster; all my friends, my girlfriend are all living in Leinster. That’s the tough part, but this decision was purely based on rugby. So that’s what it is.’
He insisted Schmidt didn’t exert a significant influence on his decision. ‘He wouldn’t have told me what to do. He was more an advisor.’
One coach who did was Johann van Graan. The impression Munster’s head coach made on Carbery seems to have been important in the decision to move south, rather than north to Ulster.
‘I met up with him and he’s a really good guy,’ said Carbery.
‘I felt like I connected with him and he seemed like a really honest guy, which I like; someone I can go to, especially if I’m living away.
‘I’m going to need someone who’s a good advisor, who I can trust and just have chats to, even not regarding rugby. I felt like he could definitely be that person I could talk to, so I really liked him.’
With the World Cup 15 months ago, Carbery’s decision-making was given a clarity that contributed to a resolution that sees him leave Leinster, where Cullen and Stuart Lancaster were desperate to keep him.
He didn’t reveal the duration of the contract, with rumours that it will be for two years and the possibility of a return east appearing thereafter.
His move could also see knockon moves, with one of Munster’s out halves possibly moving to Ulster.
But for Carbery, the need to secure his place in Schmidt’s squad for Japan was important.
‘I suppose by the time the World Cup comes around I want to be at my peak,’ he said.
‘I know I’ll get there with regular game-time and get into the rhythm of playing 10, which I’m really excited for because I know with the right opportunities where I can get to. ‘That’s pretty exciting.’ In more workaday rugby tour news, captain Rory Best was withdrawn from the Irish squad yesterday after failing to recover sufficiently from a hamstring injury.
Munster’s Niall Scannell has been called up in his place, and one of Johnny Sexton or Peter O’Mahony will captain the side in their three-Test tour of Australia, on which they depart this weekend.
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