{"id":312608,"date":"2026-02-23T07:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T07:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/312608\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T07:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T07:07:07","slug":"irelands-hard-tackling-joe-mccarthy-showcases-skill-in-the-maul-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/312608\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s hard-tackling Joe McCarthy showcases skill in the maul \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, early moments in a game can draw a line in the sand. When Luke Cowan-Dickie threw to Maro Itoje at an English lineout to set up a maul inside their own 22 in the sixth minute, Joe McCarthy<\/a> muscled through the forwards in white, wrapped his hands around the ball and ripped it off the English hooker.<\/p>\n

It led to Jack Crowley\u2019s ninth-minute penalty and somehow you sensed Big Young Joe was in the mood. He knew England like to set up mauls regardless of their positioning on the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing we were thinking was that we just needed intent and getting through it and trying to mess it up, more than most weeks. So there was a lot of shout about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then he revealed something that would seem to prove that he really was born to play rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bloody love mauls to be honest, they\u2019re probably my favourite part of the game. So yeah, I was happy to get a steal early in that and I feel I can be quite effective … in the maul.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to why this is his favourite part of the game, McCarthy said: \u201cI love the feeling, it\u2019s kind of like a wrestle or something, I think maybe even my Blackrock days, S\u00e9amus Toomey had us doing crazy-hard maul sessions and I think that\u2019s ingrained that into me. So I love that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"England'sEngland’s Henry Pollock is tackled by Joe McCarthy. Photograph: Andrew Matthews\/PA <\/p>\n

It also kick-started his best performance of the Six Nations<\/a> so far. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it was nice when you get an early turnover at the start of the game because it gets you into it and I felt sharp and felt like I had good energy in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, I was happy enough. It\u2019s never perfect, there\u2019s a few bits to think back to where it can improve. But I\u2019m happy, especially as the team was going so well with so many different turnovers. So that was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy talked about the belief and energy which had been built up during the week and also how the side fed off support from the Irish fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard the Fields of Athenry, it was … like a home game for a bit of that. You want to make the people of Ireland feel really good and that\u2019s definitely something we talk about a lot, the difference you can make to Irish people\u2019s weeks and months and the belief it gives them looking at our team. It\u2019s cool being able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although his brother Paddy was still recovering from his injury and didn\u2019t make it to Twickenham, the rest of his family did.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother Andrew, he\u2019s delighted wearing his Ireland suit again, his good luck suit, and then my two parents. It\u2019s super special seeing your family after a game; it\u2019s so good how much joy it brings them. I love seeing them there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sometimes, early moments in a game can draw a line in the sand. When Luke Cowan-Dickie threw to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25747,59241,61,60,1449,21457,15551,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-312608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-andy-farrell","9":"tag-england-rugby","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-ireland-rugby","13":"tag-joe-mccarthy","14":"tag-six-nations","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}