AS THE 2024/25 season loomed, Gus McCarthy was sitting fifth in Leinster’s depth chart at hooker. Dan Sheehan, Rónan Kelleher, John McKee, and Lee Barron are the four senior-contracted hookers in Leinster, while McCarthy is still in his second year of the academy. It was obvious that McCarthy was a big prospect.
He had captained the Ireland U20s to a Grand Slam and a World Cup final in 2023, was part of the IRFU Combined Academies team in January 2024, impressed in the AIL with UCD, and then made his senior Leinster debut in April when he came off the bench in a 42-12 defeat to the Stormers. 6ft 2ins McCarthy stood out in pre-season last summer, shining in a friendly game against Northampton in particular, and the province’s coaching staff had a feeling that he would kick on notably this season. But Leinster or McCarthy surely can’t have expected things to go the way they have since.
On Saturday, 21-year-old Dublin man McCarthy will make his Test debut for Andy Farrell’s Ireland, capping a meteoric rise in recent months. Having grown up on Rugby Road in Ranelagh before his family moved to Blackrock when he was eight, McCarthy is now set to have all of Irish rugby’s eyes on him. The door started opening as Leinster’s senior hookers picked up injuries.
Sheehan suffered a long-term ACL injury last July while playing for Ireland in South Africa, with McKee injured early this season. To be fair, McCarthy started Leinster’s first two games of the season even when Mc.
