'In Johnny's head that doesn't work': O'Gara on Sexton vs Carbery
Ronan O’Gara believes Ireland must give Joey Carbery a run of games as the starting Ireland No10 to bring on his game further rather than slot long-established star Johnny Sexton straight back into the team for the round three Guinness Six Nations match at home to Italy. Although first capped in November 2016, last Saturday’s round two game in Paris was Carbery’s first-ever Six Nations start.
Identifying a successor to Sexton, who will be aged 38 by the time of the start of the 2023 World Cup, is of massive importance to Ireland as they were found wanting with their depth at out-half at successive finals in 2015 and 2019 when the veteran got injured and missed crucial matches.
Sexton was due to start last weekend’s Stade de France match but he tweaked a hamstring during midweek training and the No10 Ireland jersey was given to Carbery, who went on to show that at the age of 26 he now has the composure to be a genuine contender to take the shirt long-term following a number of injury-hit seasons.
O’Gara, who gave way to Sexton with his 2013 retirement following a four-year battle with him for the jersey, is now head coach of La Rochelle in France and he has been watching the evolution of Andy Farrell’s Ireland team with great interest from afar.
Having seen Carbery unfazed by getting suddenly thrust in the heat of Six Nations battle as an Ireland starter last week, he believes it would be in the New Zealand-born player’s best interests to be given the chance to now start against Italy on February 27 and be allowed to build on what he did in Paris.
“You have to,” said O’Gara when asked during an appearance on OTB AM, the cutting edge Irish breakfast radio show, if he would leave Carbery in possession of the No10 Ireland jersey. “I firmly believe you have got to see now how he backs up his performance. The more you play in the ten jersey the better you get. Ideally, you are playing three or four games. That is what is best for Joey Carbery.
“I am not talking about what is best for the team here because on form Johnny is a better ten than him but in the ruthlessness of professional sport that could change if Joey got six or seven Tests in a row with the age profile, with the World Cup as the end goal. If you are playing a final tomorrow, Johnny Sexton starts. That’s for me is non-negotiable.”
Asked what he would say as a coach to Carbery in a post-France pep talk, O’Gara added: “Staying square at the line, catch-pass, getting a second touch in attack and then I just think his kicking game and his capacity to manipulate defences is always ongoing but you have to probably give him huge credit for the fact he was able to do that with such little rugby is a huge accomplishment.
“You have to put building blocks in place. You can’t expect Joey to go okay, he has done that game against France, now he has is back on the bench or playing for Munster and then we roll him out for the World Cup. You don’t know where his ceiling is. In that position, especially at that age (of 26), the upside to him is huge, you have got to roll him out and you have got to keep playing him.
“In Johnny’s head that doesn’t work and rightly so because he is a competitor and two into one doesn’t go but that is where managing your players comes into it and that is very important. Up to last Saturday, there was a big difference between the calibre of Johnny’s performances and the rest of the other pretenders looking to lay claim to that jersey.
“What we have established after Saturday is the fact that this Test level, the top-level games away in France, in New Zealand, do not faze Joey Carbery. Athletic-wise we know he is very, very good. I suppose the biggest challenge from the outside looking in was is his kicking game good enough for the northern hemisphere because we play on wet pitches for seven, eight months of the year and that is the reality whereas down south you play on dry pitches for nearly six months of the year.
“You could see Joey’s ball skills are really, really good but his kicking game needs continuous work to be a top Test player. Was his goal kicking top-notch at the weekend? Yes, it was. Was his line-kicking from penalties top-notch? It was. Game management, did he turn the French? High balls, Hugo Keenan got on the end of one, so tactically that was very good but I keep going back to the try he created for Keith Earls (as a 2019 sub) in Murrayfield.
“His capacity on the ball is freakish from the fact that he went through two Scottish forwards, put them on their backside, accelerated, changed the ball from the left to right, went on a kind of a slalom run and then whipped out a delicious pass for Earls to score. That is Dan Carter-esque in the fact of his running game but what needs to be established before that is just his basics, just the work needed on his basics.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments