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Joey Carbery handed an exciting new role at Munster

(Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

Ireland hopeful Joey Carbery has been handed a potentially exciting new role at Munster as the out-half regular has been named to start at full-back for the first time by the Irish province a month into his fifth season at the club.

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All of Carbery’s previous 28 starts for the team he joined in the summer of 2018 have been at No10 and you have to go back to May of that year when he left Dublin for Limerick to find the last club game he started wearing the No15 jersey – the PRO14 semi-final for Leinster against Munster at the RDS Arena.

In total, Carbery was chosen as the starting full-back on 15 occasions in his 26 starts across his two seasons in the Leinster first-team before he decided his development would be best served by a switch to Munster.

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The soon-to-be 27-year-old has since endured an injury-hit time at Munster and his two appearances so far this season have been off the bench in the URC against Dragons and Zebre but he has now been picked as the starting No15 when his team travels to Connacht on Friday for a derby game with their Galway-based neighbours.

Munster’s attack has struggled this season, but Graham Rowntree and co will hope that the naming of Carbery at full-back can ignite some added creativity in an XV that shows four changes in total from last Saturday’s low-frills win in Cork over Zebre. Gavin Coombes and Conor Murray mirror Carbery in making their first starts of the season while Jean Kleyn is back in the side after recovering from a head knock.

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Aside from a potentially important outing for Carbery in terms of showcasing his talents to Ireland boss Andy Farrell, the return of Murray at scrum-half is also timely given that Test team first-choice Jamison Gibson-Park has suffered a hamstring injury setback at Leinster with the countdown on towards the November 5 Autumn Nations Series opener against the Springboks.

Academy pair Conor Phillips and Patrick Campbell will support Carbery on the Munster wings, Murray will form a half-back partnership with Ben Healy while on the bench, Fionn Gibbons – another academy member – is set to make his first-team debut. The centre/wing was a Six Nations Grand Slam winner with the Ireland U20s earlier this year.

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Munster (vs Connacht, Friday)
15. Joey Carbery; 14. Conor Phillips, 13. Malakai Fekitoa, 12. Dan Goggin, 11. Patrick Campbell; 10. Ben Healy, 9. Conor Murray; 1. Dave Kilcoyne, 2. Niall Scannell, 3. Keynan Knox, 4. Jean Kleyn, 5. Tadhg Beirne, 6. Jack O’Donoghue, 7. Peter O’Mahony (capt), 8. Gavin Coombes. Reps: 16. Scott Buckley, 17. Jeremy Loughman, 18. Stephen Archer, 19. Edwin Edogbo, 20. Jack O’Sullivan, 21. Craig Casey, 22. Rory Scannell, 23. Fionn Gibbons.

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O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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