Joey Carbery has his eyes set on the starting out-half berth for this year's Rugby World Cup, and the Munster man intends to work his hardest to jump above Johnny Sexton in Joe Schmidt’s pecking order to secure the coveted jersey.
Following an injury-disrupted season at Thomond Park, Carbery is back to full fitness and currently entrenched within the Ireland training squad at Carton House, pushing for a place on the plane to Japan for the autumn showpiece.
Carbery revealed that the intensity in the camp has been high since meeting up last week and while there is a lot of spotlight on the number ten jersey, the former Leinster man believes that there is healthy competiton for every position on the team ahead of the Japan tournament.
"I suppose everyone is trying to put their hands up pretty early," said Carbery, speaking to RTE Sport’s Justin Treacy.
"It is a pretty small squad that actually gets onto the plane. But between then and now, a lot will happen and there will be a lot of injuries, so it is important to have a big squad at the moment to have everyone clued in for whoever is called upon.
"There is definitely competition at ten, but then it is all over the board and there is competition for every position. And that is a good thing for the squad as it drives you on, and you want to perform every day, not just in games."
Carbery’s form put him firmly in the conversation for the starting position during the Six Nations and looked set to feature more prominently in the final three games but for a hamstring injury picked up in training.
But the Munster out-half returned to full fitness in time for the Pro14 semi-final against Leinster, and while his former side won that particular battle, Carbery had the benefit of coming through a tough match with no side-effects, which has allowed him to hit the ground running in the build-up to the World Cup.
"I am back to normal now, which is great, so it is just a case of keeping on top of it and making sure it doesn’t happen again," said Carbery.
"I got through that semi-final game with Leinster perfectly and I haven’t had any issues yet, so it is feeling pretty good.
"I am really just focused about getting myself as good as I can be if I am called upon," added Carbery, when asked about challenging for that number 10 jersey.
"But then I would be silly not to be ambitious enough to want to go for that number one position.
"So all I can do now is put my head down and work as hard as I can and whoever is fortunate enough, I suppose, will have earned it.
"It is exciting and on a personal level, it keeps driving me on even more."
Ireland open their World Cup campaign with a testing clash against Scotland on 22 September, before taking on the hosts on 28 September, followed up with two final Pool A matches against Russia and Samoa on 3 and 12 October respectively.
But Schimdt’s side will play four warm-up games in August and September, which will give the head coach a chance to assess the entire training squad before naming a final 31 for the trip to Japan.
While Ireland are coming off the back of a poor Six Nations campaign, Carbery believes that lessons will have been learned from the defeats, which will make Schmidt’s side a tougher proposition in Japan.
The out-half talks about life at Munster, his return to full fitness and looks ahead to the Rugby World Cup with Ireland. pic.twitter.com/ksPLcX6tGH
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) June 26, 2019
Carbery had only two appearances off the bench this year in a green jersey, so the matches against Italy, England and the Wales double header will offer Schmidt plenty of opportunity to make an informed choice going into the first World Cup encounter.
"It was an extremely disappointing Six Nations compared to the previous campaign, so we are trying to take our learnings and improve as a squad from it.
"And sometimes it is better to learn from your losses than your wins, so hopefully as a team it will give us a bit of grit about our game and make the team stronger."
Carbery is confident that Ireland will travel to Japan with their reputation intact, despite the Six Nations campaign and while the belief remains within the squad that they could go and win the World Cup, the 23-year-old insists that the foundations still have to be laid for that particular scenario to play out.
"You’ll never win it if you don’t believe it," said Carbery.
"But it is still a good bit away and while it is in the back of everyone’s mind, and the potential is obviously there, there are a lot of bricks to be put down first and we are just focusing week by week at the moment."
