Sean O’Brien knew before everyone else that Joey Carbery was something special

There is something incredibly satisfying when you see the almost unprecedented and meteoric rise of a young player.

It is special now, in the professional era, when a player comes from almost nowhere and makes his mark at the highest level. When you look back to the rise of Ireland legends such as Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara, professional rugby in Ireland was in its infancy. Perhaps it could be argued that there was more scope or opportunity for young, raw talent to make a breakthrough on the European and international stage. Now, it's is a lot more difficult. Young players, on most occasions, have to earn their stripes in strict academy structures. There is a general pathway now which consists of British & Irish (B&I) Cup games, the odd All Ireland League (AIL) game and eventually, making your PRO 12 debut for the senior side. Joey Carbery, who is still only 21, was only awarded a senior contract with Leinster in January, two months after making his Ireland debut against the All Blacks in Chicago. Although many in rugby circles knew of Carbery's reputation and potential over the last number of years, to the untrained eye, it could be said that he has almost come from nowhere. It's been a long time that Ireland has produced a player with so many creative attributes at his disposal. On the latest episode of The Hard Yards, host Andy McGeady posed an argument to former Ireland internationals Geordan Murphy and O'Gara that over past number of years, perhaps creative players such as Carbery have not been nurtured or encouraged to the same extent that they would have in other countries (19:50 below). McGeady cites the likes of JJ Hanrahan and Simon Zebo as particular examples to support his theory. O'Gara disagreed with this and stated that if a player is good enough, he will be on the pitch. Regardless of whether he is deemed a flair player or one who is solely labelled as creative.

"That (theory on creative players not used enough)...for me just projects we have a negativity in this country towards geniuses and I don't think so," O'Gara said. "You ask Geordi (Geordan Murphy)...always the best players get on the pitch because the best players want to play with the best players."

In fact, O'Gara recalls that Sean O'Brien highlighted Carbery's talent and his confidence in the young man around this time last year, when the Auckland born out-half had only made his PRO 12 debut for the province as a substitute against Glasgow Warriors.

"It's the same in Leinster, you ask Sean O'Brien 12 months ago, he said 'yeah, Carbery is the man, he'll play' because players want him on the pitch."

O'Gara warns that Carbery will have a tougher time of it over the next while as opposition teams will know of the threats which he poses.

"But after a while he will become analysed, he's in the honeymoon period. "There will be 24 months where he will find his feet and hopefully he will kick on again."

Based on Carbery's down to earth nature and humility, you would expect that he will be able to overcome the challenges which he will soon face in his fledgling professional career.