LONG READ Will wounded Carbery come back to haunt former side Munster?

Joey Carbery never wanted to leave Leinster. He never wanted to leave Munster, either. On Saturday, a shade over nine years since he made his senior debut, Carbery has a chance to show both sides, and Andy Farrell, what they discarded.

This season’s Champions Cup Round of 16 had tournament organisers thanking their stars for La Rochelle v Munster. That one-point thriller detracted some attention away from the one-sided nature of some of the biggest ties. While Toulouse, Leinster, Glasgow and Toulon ran up hefty scores, most of us – in Ireland, at least – went into Monday marvelling about another Munster epic.

There were so many Munster heroes at Stade Marcel Deflandre, but Jack Crowley’s drop-goal and Teddy Thomas’ decision to cut back inside will forever be the two moments linked with that game. One might think, from the confident manner in which he dispatched his 40-metre beauty, that Crowley makes a habit of clutch kicks. It was just his third drop-goal in 92 games, for Munster and Ireland, but he does deliver on big occasions. The other two drops were the URC semi-final win over Leinster, in 2023, and a narrow November 2024 Test victory against Argentina.

Crowley has endured a tough five months, ever since Andy Farrell pushed his chips behind Sam Prendergast and assured us that no-one was dropped, before setting off on his British & Irish Lions sabbatical. Simon Easterby took the hint and Prendergast started in the Six Nations until the Grand Slam, and likely championship, dream had died. Amid the tumult, Crowley was logging great Champions Cup performances and taking whatever medicine his national coaches shoved through the hatch.

Less than 24 hours after Crowley’s match-winning moment, Bordeaux were led to victory by another man who knows how it feels to have Farrell lose faith. Carbery was making his 16^th appearance of the season for Bordeaux-Bègles and looking entirely at home in Yannick Bru and Noel McNamara’s exciting attack schemes. Starting alongside Maxime Lucu, in an altogether potent backline, Carbery looked every inch an experienced, nerveless international out-half. Ulster started swinging from the hips when they fell 19-0 behind and made a decent contest of it. Still, one always felt Bordeaux had another gear, or two, if Richie Murphy’s side got too close.

Joey was broken by the experience of being cut – mercilessly cut – by Andy Farrell. Just dropped like a hot stone. Never recovered, and never recovered for Munster.

It is hard not to link the fall from favour Carbery experienced, and which drove him out of Ireland, to the recent Test travails of Crowley. Given both men will go up against each other at Stade Chaban Delmas, on Saturday, it is impossible to ignore.

Rúaidhrí O’Connor was one of a handful of Irish rugby correspondents that took in La Rochelle and Bordeaux, last weekend. On Off The Ball, earlier this week, he commented, “Joey was broken by the experience of being cut – mercilessly cut – by Andy Farrell. Just dropped like a hot stone. Never recovered, and never recovered for Munster. By the end of the (2022/23) season, he’d lost his place. He went to South Africa (for the URC final against Stormers) as 24^th man, but Ben Healy was being picked ahead of him. Joey has had to go away to recover his form and fall in love with rugby again. He looks like he is really happy.”

Carbery emerged as heir apparent to Johnny Sexton as early as March 2016, when he made his senior debut. By the start of the following season, he served notice of intent with two tries in his first start in the 10 jersey. I was at the RDS, that night, and remember being blown away by the audacity of his attacking play, and his sheer potential. Joe Schmidt recognised that, too. Carbery had only five senior out-half starts when Schmidt included him in his Ireland squad for the November Tests. Carbery celebrated his 21^st birthday in Chicago then, two days later, came off the bench for his Test debut and helped Ireland to an historic win over New Zealand. The following season saw him astutely back up Sexton as Ireland won only their third ever Six Nations Grand Slam.

By the end of that season, 2017/18, there was already a push, from some in the media and growing sections of Irish supporters, to give Carbery a decent run in the 10 jersey. The argument, on the other hand, was keeping up winning momentum and trying to convince Sexton not to start every Test match. Carbery began the first Test of the series against Australia, but Ireland lost in Brisbane. Experiment over. Sexton returned at 10 and had it for every meaningful Test match, all the way up to the 2019 World Cup.

Carbery started his first season with Munster like a young man with a point to prove. He scored six tries in his first 10 starts and helped his new side to a Champions Cup semi-final.

By that stage, Carbery was a Munster player. Schmidt, looking to get his 10s meaningful minutes in club rugby, had spoken with Carbery and Ross Byrne. The initial notion had been a move to Ulster, after Paddy Jackson had his contract there terminated. Byrne wanted to stick with Leinster. Carbery heeded the warnings – less time in the 10 jersey, international chances impinged – and came around to the idea. Munster got wind and swooped in with an offer. “That’s a decision he’s made,” Schmidt insisted. “Apart from him catching up with me, which was nicely photographed (by a member of the public), I’ve left him to it.”

Carbery started his first season with Munster like a young man with a point to prove. He scored six tries in his first 10 starts in the out-half role and helped his new side to a Champions Cup semi-final. He picked up a hamstring injury, doing that, and only returned for a Pro14 semi-final that ended in defeat, to Leinster, of all teams. For Carbery, though, his biggest career-changing moment was to arrive in the World Cup warm-ups when he badly injured his ankle when tackling former Italy No. 8 Jimmy Tuivaiti. Schmidt insisted there was no fracture but something was definitely not right. Had there not been a World Cup coming, Carbery would not have been seen until the turn of the year.

With Connacht’s Jack Carty the only other 10 that Schmidt (half) trusted, all efforts went into rehabbing Carbery’s ankle and hoping he could play through some discomfort. Oddly, Schmidt then only selected two scrum-halves in his World Cup squad – Conor Murray and Luke McGrath – and noted that Carbery had played at nine in school (with Ardscoil na Tríonóide) and in Leinster’s under-age teams. Such needless extra pressure for a player trying to beat the odds to get back on the pitch in his preferred role, especially when Kieran Marmion was left at home.

Carbery’s reward for playing through the pain was what, for now, was his only appearance at a World Cup. He made three sub outings as Ireland were eliminated at the quarter finals. The knock-on effect was to play just twice for Munster, that season. He only returned properly in February 2021, reminded us all of his undoubted temperament and abilities, beat the All Blacks again, then fractured his elbow. Between his ankle, wrist and elbow, Carbery’s body was starting to break down. Confidence took a hit. His last appearance in an Ireland jersey was November 2022, when he was literally knocked out of the game by a red card-worthy shot from Fiji’s Albert Tuisue.

Carbery and Crowley both have scar tissue, moments of doubt and are invigorated by the points they want to prove.

Farrell admitted “it’s not as though Joey has been playing poorly” when the out-half was omitted from his 2023 Six Nations squad. Several eye-brows were raised at the time, but Ireland winning another Grand Slam hushed most selection queries. Sexton, nearing 38, remained top dog, with Crowley and Ross Byrne now vying for the back-up role Carbery once viewed as a gift, and a frustration.

Munster did not exactly push Carbery out the door but, by the 2023/24 season, Crowley was undoubted number one. Healy headed to Edinburgh while the contract offered to Carbery fell far short of what he felt he was worth. “I’m better than the way I was treated,” he would reflect, after moving to Bordeaux. “Hopefully I will prove people wrong.”

Carbery and Crowley have lived through their time as young guns – confidence flowing through the veins, older lads in the jerseys they want, and possibilities seeming endless. Both have now experienced that harsher side of rugby. Both have scar tissue, moments of doubt and are invigorated by the points they want to prove.

If Munster are worried about Carbery coming back to haunt them, defence coach Denis Leamy was not letting on. Bordeaux did not do a wider media rotation, this week, content to pour focus into Saturday’s quarter-final. Leamy and Thaakir Abrahams were up for press chats, on Tuesday. Asked if Carbery might have trade secrets to share with his new side, Leamy commented, “We haven’t spoken about it at all, I’ll be honest with you. I think we’ve just got to focus on ourselves.”

“Joey’s a top-class player and we were sad to see him go,” Leamy added. “He’s definitely a loss to the building here. Look, when guys want to go and seek other opportunities and sample a different culture, you just wish them the best. Everybody’s pleased for Joey and how it’s going for him. Hopefully he has a very successful season, domestically, just not on Saturday!”