Ronan O'Gara: Joey Carbery could have been Ireland's Beauden Barrett
TALENT: Munster's Joey Carbery could be heading to Bordeaux-Begles next season.
TOULON must have that sense of foreboding when travelling to the bottom side in the Top 14, Montpellier, last Sunday. Anytime a former manager or coach is around to meet and greet, there’s something in the book of karma that predetermines they will do a number on their old colleagues.
In Montpellier’s case, they had three old Toulon boys in their ranks - Bernard Laporte, Patrice Collazo and Louis Carbonel. Signs on, Montpellier kept themselves in touch with the four sides above them in the ladder with a shock 27-17 win. What has that to do with anything, you may well wonder, but this week Toulon are stewing and gunning for whoever fronts up next – it’s in keeping with Munster’s luck at the moment that they are the ones in the crosshairs, with their European hopes on the line and bearing their own crosses.
This is the strange period in the club calendar, like a cross of four roads. The Six Nations is only three weeks away but the two most decisive weeks in Europe are upon us all. This at a time when all clubs are juggling budgets and resources with a view to next season’s rosters, while not forgetting the bread and butter of ensuring that Top 14 ambitions are simmering away on the back burner.
That’s why you’re reading so much activity and speculation around marquee players like Owen Farrell and Joey Carbery in the last week. Their proposed Top 14 destinations have been advertised, but there’s nothing confirmed and there won’t be from the clubs in question. That’s the prerogative of the purchasers as and when it suits.
France is where it’s at right now. Unlike other major rugby leagues in world rugby, it’s all in the one country, it’s a unique lifestyle and culture and there’s a lot of security in the fact that players are guaranteed their pay cheque every month. It’s not like Joey Carbery isn’t well paid at home but a lot of circumstances have conspired to make a move to France a good play for the Munster playmaker. For one, his wife has connections in France and when he was mulling over whether a change of career direction was in order, the fact that there would be no family obstacles might have been the clincher. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region is beautiful, but it has to be a career decision as well for Joey.
Carbery was only 21 when he was introduced for his Ireland debut on that seminal afternoon in Chicago when Ireland claimed their first win against the All Blacks in 2016. It was a delicate stage of the game, the Blacks had mounted a comeback and Carbery’s game management suggested Jonny Sexton had a proper rival for the ten jersey for the 2019 World Cup. He kicked a good conversion to boot. Scrutinising his career thereafter is an exercise in frustration for anyone who empathises with the lot of a professional player. One step forward as he is named Pro12 young player of the year and a ballsy move to Munster for more game time. Then hamstring problems and recurring ankle issues halted his progress, blighted his development and ability to find a playing rhythm.
Here's the thing. At times, he had the cut of a Beauden Barrett about him, not in terms of the finished article but in terms of what Carbery could do, be it at ten or 15. He has that natural ability, acceleration and creative X-factor that maybe those who came before him were shy of. I know I didn’t have it.
He is wired like a Beauden Barrett, there was always that tingle with the possibility that he could change a game with a moment, but game management was something he struggled with. Little wonder. Those injuries denied him minutes in the saddle to get better at that and then to compound things, Jack Crowley developed more quickly for Munster but at the wrong time for Carbery. Crowley is a student of the game, observed everything and he loves it. Carbery just couldn’t catch a break.
Mentally, he’s had a lot of tough hits and challenges. The move to Munster from Leinster was a good move, it showed the ambition to progress. We all like to keep good fortune out of the equation in professional sport, but no-one can gainsay the fact he hasn’t been blessed with good luck.
Carbery’s travails may be used as the by Munster supporters of their own run of depressing injury bulletins but I am betting the management aren’t. These are the times you’ve got to just crash through the waves that are liable to knock you off course. Carbery and Peter O’Mahony are close to their return now and while there are longer-term blows, Simon Zebo is showing that there will always be opportunities for next-man up in those situations. I saw the televised games against Leinster and Connacht over Christmas and the guy still oozes class on the ball. He looks fit, and there is no doubt about his stock. Ireland and the Six Nations? The trick in the spring is to put some form together over three or four games and stay fit. That is proving a challenge for some squads.
It’s uncertain until the teams are announced Friday whether Toulon will have Baptiste Serin or their captain Charles Ollivon, and they are considerable losses but irrespective, Toulon are a right physical team. In each of their European outings to date, Munster have looked in the box seat at half-time but lost their way. The onslaught they will face at the Felix Mayol Saturday will provide another serious gut-check of their ability to ferry Cup ambitions into the final game against Northampton. It’s a tough ask.
La Rochelle face the Leicester Tigers this Sunday, and its importance here is manifest. The positive surge from going to Pau last week and ending their unbeaten home record lasted about as long as the journey home. Sunday is big for La Rochelle, bigger in reality than just staying in Europe. Elimination from the group stage is not how you want to bow out of your bid to win three stars in a row. Having won back-to-back Champions Cups, that would not be a good feeling.
The proposed move of Owen Farrell to Paris and Racing 92 is a very interesting one that has pulsed through the top-flight in France. Big name, big player, big presence. Wherever Owen Farrell is going to fetch up he is going to be in the lead role. Had Marcus Smith moved from Quins to Racing, it might have merited a murmur. Farrell moving is a sharp intake of breath for everyone and could be a game-changer for Racing and Stuart Lancaster. Every side that aspires to be a European contender needs two top number tens. Leinster can offer a pair of Byrnes’, Ciaran Frawley – I like the cut of that lad - and Sam Prendergast. Munster, with Carbery on his way, will be scanning the horizons for a support to Jack Crowley for next season.
It’s also opportune here to wish Ireland’s Andy Farrell well on his appointment as the British and Irish Lions coach for the 2025 tour to Australia. He was, unquestionably, the standout option at this time in these parts. It feels a world away yet, and who knows where we will all be the summer after next but the logistical demands in the interim in terms of meetings and discussions will bridge that period comfortably for Faz. It’s something most, if not all, coaches in this part of the world would like a cut off at some point.
Lions tours are unique in many respects but some of the basic rules stay the same and tinkering with them can have calamitous consequences. There’s only one tour in recent memory where the management opted to divide the squad into two units and we know what happened there. These Lions tours are all-in. They have to be. It’s one team, one group. By the time the first test comes around in Brisbane on July 19 next year, Andy Farrell and his management will need a wholly united force of will across the playing group to face the Wallabies.
