'He got a rocket last year, his mindset is changed' -Zebo backs Carbery to return to form

Simon Zebo at the launch of the new Vodafone 5G Stadium App. Pic Credit ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Joey Carbery’s fall from grace has been shocking and sudden but Simon Zebo is expecting a dramatic return to form for an out-half who has dropped off the Ireland radar in a World Cup year and tumbled down the pecking order at Munster.

Left out of Andy Farrell’s Six Nations and preliminary World Cup squads, the Athy man was overlooked for Munster’s sensational end-of-season, URC-winning run as Jack Crowley and the now-departed Ben Healy were preferred at ten.

Still only 27, Carbery is at a point routinely considered to be the cusp of a player’s prime. Zebo, whose own international ambitions have come up short on his return to Munster from Racing 92, has been impressed by his teammate’s work in pre-season.

"He’s been ripping it,” said Zebo who was launching Vodafone’s 5G stadium app. “Now, when I say ripping it up he’s been on fire. He got a bit of a rocket last year and his mindset is changed.

“Even the way he’s talking in training sessions. If somebody doesn’t run the line right, in the past Joey would let it slide. Now you see him getting frustrated. I’m not trying to say he turns into Johnny (Sexton) or anything but that desire… Now he’s not accepting another fella not knowing his role and him looking bad.

“He’s not taking any kind of BS. His variation in his game, his confidence in his game, like, if he’s not confident Joey can’t pass the ball accurately or kick accurately. But when he’s feeling confident and the players around him feel good he’s one of the best. He can be world-class on this day.”

Zebo’s take on last season’s dip is that Carbery didn’t play all that badly but that he might have been “caught off guard” by the willingness of a new coaching ticket to give the younger tens, Crowley and Healy, their heads.

Munster badly need him to rediscover the form and the confidence that made him the heir apparent to Sexton with Ireland for so long, not least given they are so short-served at the No.10 position as the new season approaches.

Healy’s best days in a red jersey arrived only after he had confirmed his summer switch to Edinburgh and Scotland but Crowley’s timing has been pretty much bang on and he is vying with Leinster’s Ross Byrne for the right to be first deputy to Sexton in France this autumn.

Sexton’s three-match ban, which rules him out of the prep games against Italy and England and the meeting with Samoa in Bayonne, means game time for the others is guaranteed and Zebo feels this elongated pre-season will do Crowley the world of good.

“There’s a few things around his game that he can obviously learn off Johnny and these fellas. He is still raw but, with the way we play, not a lot of pressure goes on the half-backs because everyone is aligned in the way we play and knows the shape inside out.”

This basic adherence to shape and structure, which has survived the handover from Joe Schmidt to Farrell despite all the praise for the latter’s heads-up focus, should in theory allow different players slot in and out as required.

Farrell will have to shed nine men from his 42-strong preliminary panel in the coming weeks and Zebo’s hope is that Munster’s upturn in fortunes last season is reflected in the game time allotted before that happens.

It’s a tricky balancing act for the management team. Munster were the last of the provinces in action, in late May, but some of the players in the squad haven’t played since the start of that month so even racing certainties need to be exposed to the grass.

“It's hard. The warm-up games are a tricky one, they're unbelievably important to get you on the plane or to get you in selection thoughts in the eyes of the selectors for the big game against South Africa.

“That can change depending on how your form goes into the World Cup, as opposed to playing some of the lesser teams in the group. Really exciting to see Calvin Nash, Craig Casey – I could pluck all of the Munster lads out.

“Gavin Coombes who has been knocking on the door for ages as well, but hopefully they get the opportunity. After that it’s up to them, but having won the URC there are some lads who need to be given the opportunity, for sure.”