Leinster vs Munster
Leinster | Official Matchday Programme of Leinster Rugby | Issue 13 Leinster vs Munster | United Rugby Championship Saturday 21st May, 2022 | KO 7.15pm | Aviva Stadium
Leinster | Official Matchday Programme of Leinster Rugby | Issue 13
Leinster vs Munster | United Rugby Championship
Saturday 21st May, 2022 | KO 7.15pm | Aviva Stadium
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joe<br />
McCarth<br />
THE ACADEMY<br />
INTERVIEW<br />
BY PAUL CAHILL<br />
As the final whistle<br />
blew last Saturday<br />
at Aviva Stadium, Joe<br />
McCarthy celebrated<br />
with his teammates as<br />
<strong>Leinster</strong> Rugby reached<br />
their sixth Heineken<br />
Champions Cup final<br />
in front of more than<br />
42,000 supporters.<br />
But, just three years earlier,<br />
McCarthy was a fifth year student<br />
watching the very same fixture<br />
from the stands with his younger<br />
brother.<br />
For many of us, that 2019 semi-final<br />
against Toulouse seems like only<br />
yesterday, but the Academy second<br />
row – who only last month signed his first<br />
senior contract – has been on quite a<br />
journey since then.<br />
As the 2021/22 season was getting<br />
underway, McCarthy didn’t have the<br />
lofty ambitions of featuring in a Heineken<br />
Champions Cup semi-final.<br />
The extent of his ambitions, was just trying<br />
to get fit.<br />
“I was coming back from an injury at the<br />
start of this season,” says the 21-year-old.<br />
86 | www.leinsterrugby.ie
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