McCarthy's French tour de force shows it pays to play the long game

Andy Farrell’s current squad is laced with players who took alternative paths.

LONG GAME: Hugo Keenan and Joe McCarthy are late bloomers and showing the way that it can pay to play the long game. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Scratch ever so lightly at the schadenfreude that accompanies what are now increasingly rare defeats by the Ireland senior men’s team and it wouldn’t be long in finding an obvious seam of reverse snobbery.

Not every detractor is guilty of it, but it’s there nonetheless.