{"id":638901,"date":"2026-10-07T08:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/638901\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T08:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:28:14","slug":"im-a-young-buck-still-joe-mccarthy-on-becoming-a-senior-figure-at-leinster-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/638901\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m a young buck still\u2019: Joe McCarthy on becoming a senior figure at Leinster \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whisper it, but former young tyro Joe McCarthy<\/a> is beginning to sound, and behave, like one of Leinster<\/a>\u2019s senior men.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old was asked to step beyond his usual role during the province\u2019s recent trip to South Africa. Part of a group of Ireland internationals who travelled knowing they would not play, McCarthy was among those given responsibility for analysing the Lions and Sharks and presenting his findings to coaches and players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were kind of in a player-coach role,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cSo it was a bit of a different thing, putting together a few clips of the opposition and deciding what points do we really hammer home. It was useful. You hear a lot from the coaches, but I think the players enjoyed hearing from the players on things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was among the group that left Durban on Friday before the 26-20 loss to the Sharks<\/a>, and returned to UCD on Monday, training with Leinster\u2019s sub-academy players, many of whom are only 18 or 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a young buck still,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cBut it\u2019s so weird because they probably look at me like I\u2019m quite an old player. They\u2019re all 18, 19, so I\u2019m like, \u2018jeez, it feels like it was yesterday when I was coming out of school\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second row is normally happy to leave the talking to more established voices in the pack, such as Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan and James Ryan, but he acknowledges that his duties on the South Africa trip were part of his continuing development as a more senior dressingroom figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely wouldn\u2019t be the most talkative out of the group,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to overcomplicate things, but I would try to take a bit more leadership. Sometimes I might be running the line of defence plan during a week, so there\u2019s a bit of leading in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy believes that, while the trip failed to yield a victory for the second year running, it did provide an ideal foundation after the fragmented nature of last season\u2019s start, when the involvement of so many players with the British and Irish Lions delayed their return.<\/p>\n

\"JoeJoe McCarthy training with Leinster in Mullingar. Photograph: Grace Halton\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Naturally, he can\u2019t wait to get up and running against Cardiff Blues on Saturday. \u201cThe lads are really buzzed to get back into the Laya Arena,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to put on a proper show that fans are happy and proud to show up to and watch. There are no guarantees, but it definitely felt like we were a lot more on the same page on how we were trying to evolve our attack and get better at defence. It definitely feels like we\u2019ve bedded in and we\u2019re going to have a fresh attack and feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoeJoe McCarthy and James Ryan at training. Photograph: Grace Halton\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Leinster\u2019s RDS return marks the beginning of another marathon season for McCarthy that will eventually lead into the World Cup year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of big games coming up,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got Cardiff, Clermont and Munster and then we\u2019re into the internationals, so it is in the back of your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, amid all the talk of personal evolution, there is a visible sign of change. The renowned McCarthy mullet is no more. He is happy enough to compare Sam Prendergast\u2019s \u201cfurry\u201d haircut to a badger or a beaver, but accepts that his own record does not leave him in much of a position to judge.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Rugby referees need to cut out the first name chummy approach to playersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019ll go for a shaved head this weekend,\u201d he said, smiling. \u201cI\u2019ve had some dodgy ones. It was just looking a bit raggedy, wasn\u2019t it? It had maybe run its course a bit, but once you cut it then you kind of miss it a bit. I miss the feeling of it whipping around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just cut it to change it and maybe tidy up my appearance, make me look more serious. I\u2019m getting older. I have to leave that behind me. But I think Sammy\u2019s hair actually looks all right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whisper it, but former young tyro Joe McCarthy is beginning to sound, and behave, like one of Leinster\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[288264,85,46,154440,288263,148902,288265,1363,105,183522,170298],"class_list":["post-638901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dan-sheehan","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-james-ryan","tag-joe-mccarthy","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-rds","tag-rugby-world-cup","tag-sports","tag-tadhg-furlong","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}