Former Munster fly-half Ronan O’Gara has said that Munster need to get new fly-half Joey Carbery on the ball as much as possible next season if they are to make the best of his talents.
Carbery announced on Thursday that he will play for Munster next season with the player signing a two-year deal to stay at the province until the end of the 2019-2020 season.
Carbery will join Ian Keatley, Tyler Bleyendaal and JJ Hanrahan at the club and O’Gara feels that Munster should base their gameplan around the 22-year-old playmaker.
“If you want to see the best of Joey Carbery, Munster needs to get him on the ball as often as they can, and that means [Johann] van Graan and his staff must develop a game plan that is different to what they are about at the moment,” O’Gara wrote in his Irish Examiner column.
“Munster kick the ball in the air and they pressure opposition. That’s seeing the best of Conor Murray — it’s not seeing the best of the 10.
“It’s not like they throw the pressure game in the dumpster. It’s in the locker for when it’s required. But they need to add a few layers of a phase game, playing off 10 and not nine.
“Carbery will be well able to do all his basics, but the game plan he is orchestrating has to evolve.”
O’Gara worked with Carbery on last summer’s tour of the US and Japan.
The former Leinster back struggled against the US but he claims that the tour was a great experience for him and that he learned a lot from O’Gara during their time together.
“I learned how to spiral. So, learning from the best. He’s been through so much and he’s seen so much. It was just great to even sit and chat with him over coffee and he’d give you a few stories; he’s fairly in on stuff.
“He really emphasised trying to keep a cool head in the thick of it all. The phenomenon of playing in a game and there’s so much going on, that’s the key thing to do when you’re at 10 because you’ve got to maintain and control. He’s really embedded that in me.
“He’s just a good guy and you can chat to him. I feel like I can always give him a text.”
