Serial winner Gus McCarthy planning to carry his happy habit into the Ireland fold
Champions Cup
game. It is a striking statistic for the 21-year-old
Leinster
and
Ireland
hooker. On Saturday he will look to maintain that record when Ireland take on Portugal in Lisbon (7pm Irish time).
He has played 20 matches in senior professional rugby and suffered defeat just twice, both in United Rugby Championship (URC) games.
McCarthy is a serial winner. He led his school, Blackrock College, to a Leinster Schools Senior Cup crown. He captained the Ireland Under-20s to a Six Nations grand slam and a place in the World Junior Championship final, where they lost to a brilliant French team.
McCarthy's progression from Leinster to Ireland debuts came in just under six months, via an Emerging Ireland tour. The ACL injury suffered by Dan Sheehan in July 2024 provided an opening, which the young hooker followed up on.
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He scored a try in his first cap against Fiji last November, provided an assist for three others and finished the match in the backrow because of injuries. The Leinster man then followed up with another try-scoring cameo in the 22-19 victory over Australia.
McCarthy won two further caps off the bench in the Six Nations. That was a major achievement in itself as the two players ahead of him at Leinster and Ireland are currently away with the Lions − Sheehan and Rónan Kelleher.
Gus McCarthy during squad training ahead of Ireland's match against Portugal in Lisbon on Saturday evening. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
McCarthy said of his rapid rise from rookie to the Test environment: 'I've been delighted with the opportunities I've got, but obviously I'm in Leinster and it's a very, very tough challenge. I've got two probable Lions Test players in the same position as me.
'I haven't played a whole amount. I didn't really get involved in any of the URC knockout stages and the latter end of the Champions Cup, but I did get quite a bit of game time in the middle of the season. It's good to learn from the best, some seriously good talent. The competition is endless; it keeps you on your toes.
Ireland impress as the Lions struggle
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'I wouldn't say it's frustrating. Obviously, I would like to play but I'm still very inexperienced. I try to take every opportunity I get and just bide my time.'
He smiles when the word 'meteoric' is mentioned. 'It did happen sooner than I would have thought. I thought I was just going to be training for the first week of Portugal (in November) but then I got held on.
'For the week of the Argentina game, I was back with Leinster and then I thought I was done, but I got the call on the Sunday night asking me to come into camp again and then I got named to start in that Fiji match. I wasn't expecting it, but I was delighted to get a shot.'
Gus McCarthy's rugby career to date has been a story of success after success. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
He was part of an Irish front-row alongside Jack Boyle (2) and Thomas Clarkson (6) that had a combined 12 caps when Ireland faced into
last week's Test in Tbilisi
. Whatever about the callow nature of the team, squaring up against Georgia in a scrum is not for the fainthearted. It is a rigorous technical examination.
While Ireland did experience issues initially in that facet of the game, they successfully worked their way through them and won the game 34-5. So, what was the scrum Test like?
'I really enjoyed the experience of playing against that Georgian pack,' he said. 'The Georgians are known for being a seriously strong scrum, big front-row, abrasive players. It was a great test for us as a young and relatively inexperienced pack. Everything wasn't perfect but I think we did a good job and got stuck into them physically.'
Saturday will provide a contrasting test, fast and loose in the sweltering temperatures of Lisbon and a Portugal side that will engage Ireland in a different way to Georgia. McCarthy can't wait. He's where he loves to be, in the match environment.
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GET A LOAD of Bernard Flynn, hopping with excitement. If things were different, he might have been out there on the sideline this Sunday, on Robbie Brennan's shoulder as he was with Kilmacud Crokes. There's no delicate way to put this, but his face didn't fit. His previous critiques were not appreciated in certain quarters. However, he has held his counsel and he will continue to do so. With Meath colours strapped to everything bolted or concreted down, everything else melts away. It doesn't matter. Meath. Are. Back. So back. You best believe. 'Meath will be there whenever we are gone and whether we win or lose. You look at what is happening in the county now and the belief the young lads have. I'm 60 last week and I haven't seen it in years,' says Flynn. 'I'm thrilled and delighted to see what's happening. When have you last seen a Meath team really buying into something?' And it needn't end any time soon. 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Advertisement For a few weeks since they had beaten Armagh in the Ulster final, a whole slew of young journalists had the road to Bundoran flattened when they were told to come on right ahead to Donegal. For many it was their first time in a place that operated on a different time zone. The pace of life was slow, the conversations slower, the pints thicker and faster. According to 'Sam's for the Hills', the definitive study on Donegal football of that time by Dónal Campbell and Damian Dowds, two themes emerged in all the pieces; that Donegal was a gorgeous county, but they had no chance against Meath. During Hogan's breakfast and interview, McEniff was the subject of no less than six interruptions with telephones trilling. Some were business calls, others were offering advice on how to handle Meath. One woman from Wicklow had made a phonecall to McEniff, advising him to make sure his players jumped higher than the Meath men. 'Can you believe it?' asked McEniff. 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Above all the games Meath have played over the last few years, seldom has our character put more to the test than on this occasion. 'They had us on the rack but I'm convinced the spirit and heart in this team is greater than at any time over the last four years.' It wasn't all one way. In 'Sam's for the Hills', Declan Bonner recalled, 'Tony (Boyle) and me went for the first high ball that came in. As I went for it, Mick Lyons came across me and took me out of it. I remember thinking that if I wanted to play at this level I would have to start learning pretty quickly.' Some Donegal lads knew the ropes. Martin Shovlin was a man renowned for a pain threshold so high it was invisible to the naked eye. He won man of the match but nobody shipped more punishment. Barry McGowan said, 'I warmed up for Martin Shovlin two or three times after tackles that would have killed an ordinary man. He had treatment and was taken off on a stretcher each time.' 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Up against Mick Galvin in the 1994 series against Dublin. ©INPHO ©INPHO 'That Meath team we had, because of that attitude, we won two All-Irelands and we should have won a third or a fourth. And it was all to do with pressure and that mad lunatic stuff in training. We killed each other, we hopped off each other and were as thick as fuck. 'Honestly, I am one of the few actually spoke out and said it cost us. I love Sean Boylan. We are a close bunch, but if I told you the stuff we got up to, you would not believe it. The training matches were worse than we ever had. It was vicious and ferocious. 'It got us to a level, but I'll tell you what, it was some price to pay.' Which brings us back to that 1990 All-Ireland semi-final when he broke Donegal with his 2-2. His first shot came back off the post and hit Donegal goalkeeper Gary Walsh on the back of the head. The second arrived late on and he sold his trademark jink and laced the ball across Walsh to the net. 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