Challenge for Joey Carbery to overcome Six Nations disappointment
When Mike Prendergast predicted the likelihood of players needing a comforting word of consolation from the Munster coaches ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Toulouse, he could have hardly anticipated it would be Joey Carbery’s shoulders that needed an arm around them.
Thursday morning’s bombshell from Ireland boss Andy Farrell that Munster’s first-choice fly-half would be surplus to requirements at the start of next month’s Guinness Six Nations will have given the province’s management a jolt every bit as much as it must have felt for Carbery.
In a week when Jack Crowley did get the nod to continue his Test acclimatisation with Ireland and Ben Healy celebrated a call-up by Scotland, the odds at the start of it on Carbery being the playmaker left at home in Limerick when the championship gets underway must have been long indeed.
All three will be involved Sunday at Stade Ernest-Wallon, when Munster’s recent upturn in fitness, form and confidence faces its sternest examination with Heineken Champions Cup qualification to the knockout stages on the line. Carbery retains his place at number 10, Crowley will continue at inside centre having overcome the ankle knock he picked up in last Saturday’s Thomond Park defeat of Northampton Saints and Healy has been handed his first European call-up of the season.
The Edinburgh-bound Healy joins a replacements bench that also features a recalled Conor Murray and a potential Champions Cup debutant as a Munster player in Malakai Fekitoa as head coach Graham Rowntree throws his most creative on-field brains at the problem of overcoming a Toulouse side that has enjoyed three consecutive victories over the Reds in the past three seasons, all of them on Irish soil, including last month’s reverse fixture which the French giants won 18-13.
Yet it is Carbery who faces the biggest challenge in having to overcome the obvious disappointment of sitting out at least the early stages of a Six Nations campaign when he is fit to play for his country in order to deliver a performance that helps secure a place in the Round of 16.
Attack coach Prendergast recognised that this week ahead of Thursday’s Ireland squad announcement. Eight of his charges did make the cut in Farrell’s Leinster-dominated 37-man squad, including a recalled Gavin Coombes but others will be left behind who will have been hoping their recent good form merited selection, not least the starting back three of Mike Haley, Calvin Nash and Shane Daly.
Munster will need them all fully focused on the task at hand and not feeling sorry for themselves by the time they kick off Sunday afternoon.
“There might be a few arms thrown around guys’ shoulders, absolutely,” Prendergast said. “That’s part of our jobs as managers from a human point of view and it’s important that we manage that as well, individually.”
As an assistant coach with eight seasons’ experience in France with Grenoble, Stade Francais and most recently Racing 92, Prendergast knows all about the challenge of seeking victory in Toulouse against a powerhouse forward pack and inspirational backline spearheaded by Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack. Yet he is confident that while only captain Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray have played at Ernest-Wallon before, and that against Castres in 2011, this is a Munster team that has enough experience on the road not to need his personal insights.
“I think to be honest the boys have been in these scenarios. We’ve a few internationals there and there’s a good few young lads there within the squad and they’ve got a few bits of experience but I think the guys around them realise that and I don’t think there’s anything different.
“They know how good (Toulouse) are, they would have been in the squad a couple of weeks ago so they know what to expect. Obviously the difference is you go down there in terms of atmosphere, I’m told it’s a sell-out, Sunday afternoon, the whole of European rugby will be watching it and that’s great.
“That’s where you want to be and I spoke to the boys this morning in the meeting and said it’s the last game in this block of games before the boys go off to Ireland camp so it’s the last time we play together for two and a half months and that’s exciting. So the challenges can’t be any bigger.”
TOULOUSE: M Jaminet; J C Mallia, P L Barrasi, P Akhi, D Delibes; R Ntamack, A Dupont – captain; C Baille, J Marchand, D Aldegheri; R Arnold, E Meafou; A Jelonch, J Willis, A Roumat.
Replacements: G Cramont, R Neti, D Ainu’u, T Flament, J Brennan, F Cros, A Capuozzo, A Retiere.
MUNSTER: M Haley; C Nash, A Frisch, J Crowley, S Daly; J Carbery, C Casey; D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan; J Kleyn, T Beirne; P O’Mahony - captain, J Hodnett, G Coombes.
Replacements: D Barron, J Wycherley, R Salanoa, J O’Sullivan, A Kendellen, C Murray, B Healy, M Fekitoa.
Referee: Karl Dickson (England).
