The Irish rugby public knew plenty about Joe McCarthy before last year's Guinness Six Nations, but his championship debut away to France was the night he announced himself globally.
Having been knocking around the fringes of the Irish squad for the previous 18 months, McCarthy’s promotion to the starting team in early 2024 was one of the first guard-changing selections of this World Cup cycle.
Still 22-years-old at the time, the Leinster lock earned his sixth Irish cap at Stade Velodrome in Marseille that night against the French, named player of the match after a performance that was equal parts dazzling and destructive, and instantly made him a key member of this Irish team.
"It was a kind of different feel, that Six Nations," McCarthy says, as he reflects on his breakthrough campaign.
"It was after a World Cup so the group felt a bit different. I was definitely nervous going into that game. It was my first Six Nations game and a bit of a new group.
"We’d a good build-up for it, prepared really well because France at home are usually a really tough test but thinks clicked quite well for us.
"We started well – set piece came out of the blocks firing.
"I got my hands on the ball quite early in the game. I remember being quite chuffed that I had just caught the ball and managed to get it back, because sometimes in the game if you don’t get a touch early on, you get a bit anxious, a bit jittery.
"If you can get a good carry and get on the front foot at the start of the game, it definitely makes things a bit easier. I’ve had games before, sometimes in a big Test match, you’re really geed up to try and carry hard and then you lose it in contact or something. You just focus on keeping the ball and getting into the game."
Now into his second Six Nations campaign, McCarthy is firmly established in the Irish pack, his value to the team highlighted by thee three-year central contract he signed with the IRFU this week.
"I’m delighted to get it, at a young age obviously. I feel very grateful and lucky to get the opportunity to get a central contract.
"It’s great knowing the next three years I’ll be able to play in an environment like this with Leinster and Ireland. It was nice to get that."
That Six Nations debut against France was the start of an 11-game unbroken run for McCarthy in the starting team, which included two Tests away to South Africa, and a meeting with New Zealand in November.
The only games he’s missed since the World Cup came early in this championship, when a training accident in Portugal left him concussed, which ruled him out of Ireland’s wins against England and Scotland.
"I don’t like to blame team-mates but it was in training. We were in Portugal. It was a bit of an unlucky accident.
"It was actually non-contact training but I think Finlay [Bealham] hit Gus and Gus McCarthy has quite a hard head. He whacked me in the face and broke my nose and stuff. I took a bit of a head-bang so I was instantly out for 12 days after that.
"I didn’t look great the next few days! It kinda looked like I’d been stung by a bee. It didn’t really look that cool. I’d a bit of a black-eye. Didn’t look too cool.
"I went into The Shelbourne the day after and fans were like, 'Can I get a photo with you?’ And then they looked at me and it was, ‘Oh Jeez, maybe we’ll leave it for today.’
"It was frustrating but that does happen in rugby a lot. You’re geared up to play. I felt in a good spot but yeah, you can’t really prepare too far ahead for things because you never know what will happen in rugby."
Having returned to the Irish line-up away to Wales two weeks ago (above), McCarthy continues in the engine room alongside Tadhg Beirne for the visit of the French this afternoon.
An unofficial championship decider, Ireland will move one step away from the title if they grind out a win, although defeat would leave them needing a miracle in next week’s final round.
"Every week in the Six Nations is massive but some games feels extra special; France, how well they’ve been going, how strong a side they are, there’s that extra bit of big game feel about this, but we’ve prepared how we usually would.
"We’ve looked a lot at France’s strengths, because I feel you really have to respect them as a team. They’ve a lot of threats right across the board so we have to be all over that, especially early in the week – be all over what they do and the threats they bring and then probably into the latter half of the week focus more on ourselves because we’ve got a lot of world class talent in our team, so try and bring that in later on in the week," McCarthy added.
