Mccarthy ready to live out his boyhood dream
LONG before ‘Big Joe’ Mccarthy made such a significant impact on Leinster Rugby, Leinster Rugby had made an impression on a slightly smaller Joe Mccarthy.
Typically, he was involved in the type of rough and tumble that today marks him out as one of the most fearsome forwards in the sport.
“Dad had a video of me and my brother fighting in my room,” recalls the second-row, this week named the Nevin Spence Young Player of the Year by his Rugby Players Ireland peers.
“You can see on my wall I would have had a picture of Leinster winning the Champions Cup in 2009. When the club did that, I stuck the picture up.
“The first bit of rugby I played was down at Stradbrook when I was about six. I went into Blackrock which was crazy into rugby. I’ve loved it ever since.”
Many years later, after a season where the 22-year-old has repeatedly demolished opponents with skittling disregard, highlighted by a ferocious Six Nations title-winning campaign, it seems faintly incredulous to recall his relatively belated ascension to sky-scraping eminence.
His only winners’ medal was earned in the famed Blackrock College but in modest circumstances, from the bench, for the Under-15s’ fourth team.
By the time he left school, a growth spurt demanded attention and selection for the first team. He hasn’t looked back since, progressing to the Ireland Under-20s through the Leinster Academy.
He could have started last year’s Final but injury held him back; a slight ankle knock recently was not going to prevent him making it this time around.
“I rolled my ankle a bit but I was in training the next week, so just managing that, it wasn’t too much of an issue,” he explains.
“I didn’t train in the early part of the Ospreys week but then just got training the end of the week there. I couldn’t play that game then.
“I feel good, I’ve played 22 games this season I think, a lot of minutes in the bag, I feel good, match fit at the end of the season. Last year, I just got back the week before when I played against Munster off the bench.
“So I didn’t play any of the knockout games coming up to the Final. I was hoping that if I was fit, I would play but, unfortunately I didn’t make the team.
“I’d only made my debut in January that year so I hadn’t really thought I’d be playing in the Champions Cup or in a Final. It was kind of surreal at the time.
“I feel very lucky to be in a Final again because it’s not easy to win those or get to that position again. Once we’d lost that, you don’t know how long it will be until you get another opportunity so I feel very lucky to get another chance to go again.”