Ambitious Joey Carbery reaches for the top

A lot has happened to Joey Carbery in the year since his remarkable Test debut in that historic victory over the All Blacks in Chicago, though not enough to stop his drive to become one of the best players in the world.

Six months after playing for Clontarf in an All-Ireland League final victory over Cork Constitution, only a few weeks after graduating from the Leinster academy to a senior contract and just four days after turning 21, Carbery found himself replacing an injured Johnny Sexton at Soldier Field with the game on a knife-edge and nerves seriously frayed ahead of the final quarter.

That the debutant helped steady the ship after the world champions had narrowed the gap to 33-29 and then clinched the conversion of Robbie Henshaw’s game-securing try was the stuff of dreams for the New Zealand-born fly-half with an Irish mother, whose family moved to Kildare when he was 11.