‘He’s on track for a proper career’ – Dan Sheehan hails Gus McCarthy’s impact as he targets return in new year
Daire Walsh
While there may be some on the outside who have been surprised by Gus McCarthy’s meteoric rise over the past few months, his Leinster colleague and rival Dan Sheehan isn’t one of them.
Despite having just 25 minutes of senior rugby under his belt coming into the current season, McCarthy was named as a training panellist when Ireland head coach Andy Farrell announced his squad for this year’s Autumn Nations Series.
That selection came off the back of five impressive outings for Leinster in the United Rugby Championship and two appearances for Emerging Ireland on their tour of South Africa in October.
He mightn’t have gone into the Ireland senior camp expecting to see game-time, but after being handed opportunities to showcase his talents against Fiji and Australia over the past fortnight, McCarthy responded by recording tries in both encounters.
As someone who keeps a watchful eye on the progress of his fellow hooker, Sheehan knew McCarthy was more than capable of making a seismic impact at Test level.
“I’ve spent a lot of time watching Gus because he plays for UCD with my brother [Bobby]. When Gus comes back to UCD, my brother would jump into the back-row and so you could always see it in him. He probably didn’t have the natural build, the big build he has, but he has worked his ass off to get the size on and to become the powerful athlete he is and you saw,” Sheehan acknowledged.
“I think that’s why he has taken it by surprise. At every level he has met there has been no bother to him. He was thrown straight into a Leinster jersey and stood out, and then thrown into an Irish jersey and stood out. He has played two or three seasons of AIL and I played three seasons of AIL.
“I probably had 10 caps for Leinster before I got the chance to play for Ireland. I kind of see a similar resemblance in him to myself. We have six good hookers in there now, everyone is back fit bar me, but there was a time there when there was only two fit.
“It is good competition and it will be interesting what happens over the next couple of months or into the next couple of seasons. Where the talent sort of disperses to or how it goes, but Gus is definitely on the right track to make himself a proper career.”
Of course, McCarthy has benefited to some degree from the fact Sheehan is currently sidelined with an ACL injury that he sustained in Ireland’s opening game in South Africa earlier this summer.
While he didn’t put an exact timeline on his return to full fitness when he spoke to the media yesterday at a Just Eat & Leinster partnership extension announcement, he is hoping to be available for selection relatively early in the new year.