'IT WAS MY PARENTS AND MY BROTHER. IT WAS REALLY SPECIAL'

PADDY MCCARTHY WAS chatting about his Ireland debut against the All Blacks in Chicago on Saturday evening when James Lowe came over and interjected.

“He’s very, very good,” said Lowe. “He’s a very, very good rugby player. Remember that.”

The Ireland wing continued on his way to the Irish changing room, having given McCarthy his latest ringing endorsement. His older brother, Joe, received similarly glowing reports from within camp when he first joined the Ireland set-up.

22-year-old Paddy was sidelined for most of last season but he is making up for lost time in the current campaign, getting his first three senior starts for Leinster in the URC before being catapulted into Test rugby with Ireland.

His Leinster team-mate, Jack Boyle, made good progress last season as he earned his first four caps, but Andy Farrell went for McCarthy as the back-up loosehead to Andrew Porter last weekend against New Zealand.

“Faz just said to be myself,” said McCarthy of making his debut.

“It was a pretty simple message – make my tackles, do my bits well around scrum, and stuff like that. I tried to deliver on that. Maybe we were unlucky with a few scrum calls or whatever. But no, I was just delighted to make my debut.”

McCarthy only had a few tackles to make in his 13 minutes on the pitch at Soldier Field, but said he could notice the step up during that cameo.

“The contacts definitely were bigger,” said the loosehead prop. “If you went into a breakdown, there’s All Black bodies just flying in and into you. Definitely a step up in physicality. You could feel it in the lungs as well.”

Thursday night was an emotional one for the McCarthy family as Paddy’s parents, Joe and Paula, and his older brother, Andrew, visited Ireland camp for his jersey presentation.

His brother, Joe, was supposed to be the one handing over Paddy’s jersey, but a delayed flight to Chicago scuppered that part of the plan.

“It was my parents and my brother, Andrew,” said McCarthy.

“They were so happy for me and I was delighted as well. They played a video of some of my clips from different games and things like that, and old memories. It was really nice. My good friend Gus McCarthy from school presented me with the jersey.

“Gus said a few words. It was meant to be with Joe but he couldn’t make it. So they put Joe on FaceTime. It was kind of funny. Obviously, he didn’t make it.

“He was in the airport in Chicago. He was an hour away. It was nice, he got to see the presentation on FaceTime. It was really special.”

Joe reassured Paddy throughout the week anyway, telling him he’d do well and to just be himself.

Joe is currently sidelined, so the McCarthy brothers will have to wait before playing for Ireland together.

“He’s hoping to get back as soon as possible,” said Paddy. “I think he’s back running now.

“He’s going well, his rehab is going to plan. He picked up another injury after the Lions. He thought he was going to be back, but then he had another thing. He’s coming back from that now.”

With a debut off the bench behind him, McCarthy is now hoping to get his first start for Ireland sooner rather than later.

He is definitely hoping to feature against Japan this weekend as Ireland play the first of their three home autumn games.

“Yes, I’d love to be involved in that,” he said. “That would be another challenge.

“That’s what we said in the changing room – we’ve got to not feel sorry for ourselves and just kick on for the next few games.”

2025-11-04T07:05:18Z