Late bloomer Joe McCarthy revelling in 'surreal' World Cup call-up

TAKING IT ALL IN: Joe McCarthy during an Ireland press conference in Tours, France. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Surreal and seriously cool. That is how Joe McCarthy described being a member of Ireland’s Rugby World Cup squad and realising a lifelong dream at the tender age of 22.

When seven of his team-mates currently in camp in the Loire Valley were playing at the 2015 World Cup in an Ireland squad captained by their present forwards coach Paul O’Connell, McCarthy was watching from afar with schoolmates and planning lives watching the 2019 edition from a student union bar with thoughts of representing Ireland a distant, optimistic ambition.