What got you ‘hair’ won’t get you there!
BLUES STAR ‘BIG JOE’ WON’T REST ON HIS LAURELS
JOE MCCARTHY’S triumphant Six Nations was a hair-raising experience but he is loving life in a faster lane as he targets more success this season.
The 22-year-old’s ‘Big Joe’ nickname stuck after his stand-out performance against France on his championship debut in Marseille.
Two months on and after starting in all five of Ireland’s Six Nations games, he has become Irish rugby’s newest sensation with his all-action displays and that distinctive hairstyle.
“There were a few kids in (Leinster’s) ‘autograph alley’ who had a mullet,” he smiled. “A few better mullets than my hair anyway!
“I’m sure they’ve been growing it for a bit longer than mine.
“You definitely notice it (the attention). Leinster is big when you’re in it, but the Ireland Six Nations is bigger. It’s kind of crazy. You do get noticed a bit more, so it’s a bit strange. Even when you’re with your mates and someone asks you for a photo, your mates are like ‘Jesus, look at that, who do you think you are now?’
“It’s all pretty positive and grand, nothing too crazy.
“You’re left to figure it out for yourself. Leinster fans are nice to you.”
Like other breakthrough players before him, Mccarthy discovered that opposition teams quickly put the spotlight on in terms of trying to nullify new threats.
“It’s nice sometimes when
it’s you come in and people don’t know you as much,” he acknowledged.
“They don’t know what kind of areas you have in your game, so you can probably get away with it a bit more.
“Yes, you probably do find people doubling up on you or bringing a bit more line speed. Even small things around the lineout they might know, they might block you off.
“You do notice things like that. I like the quote, ‘what got you here won’t get you there’.
“You definitely have to keep evolving your game to stay ahead of the opposition.”
But what Mccarthy and the new wave of Blues players want is to take their place alongside the greats who have won the Champions Cup.
After suffering an ankle injury that required surgery in February of last year, he didn’t feature in the knock-out stages as Leinster fell short in the final against La Rochelle for the second year running.
Instead, he came back in time for the URC quarter-final win over the Sharks and semi-final loss to eventual champions Munster.
“I was only back for the end,” he said. “It’s unreal, I couldn’t think of anything better to be doing.
“The knockout games are so fun and playing with Leinster is class. I’m loving it.
“Everything we talked about when we came back in is, what do you want to get out of it? You want to win two trophies.
“There’s a lot of young players in our team that haven’t won any trophies with Leinster, including myself.
“It’s a big focus, but we know that we just need to worry about performing this weekend. It’s a knockout game.”