Munster fly-half Joey Carbery eager to learn from Stephen Larkham

Joey Carbery has said Munster have made good out of a bad situation with the hires of Stephen Larkham and Graham Rowntree following the departures of Jerry Flannery and Felix Jones.

The Ireland international lauded the additions of two coaches with international pedigree to Johan van Graan’s backroom staff and made particularly light of his admiration for Larkham’s abilities.

The 45-year-old represented the Wallabies in 102 Tests before embarking on a coaching career which saw him take senior roles with the Brumbies and Australia.

And Carbery, who has won 18 Tests for Ireland, outlined his thoughts on the influence Larkham could have on his development.

“Hopefully I’ll sit down with Larkham a good bit now,” the Munster back said. “He was another pretty good rugby player when I was growing up.

“It was pretty cool that he played a bit of full-back as well and moved into 10 a bit later. I can see the relevance there so it would be great for me to work with him on a personal level but then, when he was coaching with the Brumbies and Australia, you could obviously see the way he played in the way that the teams were playing.

“He seems to be a guy who coaches on instinct and what he sees which is pretty cool to see.”

Carbery, still only 23, will be handed the keys to the Ireland backline once Johnny Sexton announces his retirement. Although the form of Jack Carty for Connacht will mean competition will be in no small measure.

Sexton, who turns 34 next month, however remains the talisman behind Ireland’s World Cup charge this autumn with head coach Joe Schmidt holding a training camp at Carton House.

Speaking at the camp, Carbery said he was raring to go with preparations after taking a period off following the end of the PRO14 season.

“We had three weeks off, so I went over to California for 18 days and did a bit of travelling around there which was pretty cool,” Carbery said.

“I got away for the majority of it and then came back and felt pretty refreshed. It was nice to get away and clear the head a bit.”

“Feeling pretty confident and it’s going to be a big summer of training to try and get the body and mind right, but I’m pretty confident going into the next couple of months that if I’m called upon, I should be ready.”