Fogarty backs 'calm' Carbery to deliver
"We always knew we had a capable guy with Joey, but he did a super job and at every stage Joey has taken it in his stride," he said. Photo: Sportsfile
John Fogarty believes that Joey Carbery will handle the pressure of playing in Montpellier on Sunday, should Johnny Sexton again miss out through injury.
Carbery impressed on his European debut against Castres last week and if he is called on again this weekend, it would be the biggest challenge of his fledging career.
The New Zealand-born youngster has been a breath of fresh air in the way that he has handled every challenge thrown at him and Fogarty expects that trend to continue.
Capable
"We always knew we had a capable guy with Joey, but he did a super job and at every stage Joey has taken it in his stride," he said.
"He's a very calm kid and he's taken it very well. We know he can do a really good job.
"However, Johnny's a world-class No 10 who has done it on the highest stage and we want to make sure he returns to play in the right way and hopefully he can. We'll see."
Despite getting off to a losing start in Northampton, Fogarty has been impressed with what he has seen from Montpellier, particularly in the Top14.
The two teams have met twice in past with Leinster the only side to claim a victory (the other meeting ended in a draw).
In typical French style, Montpellier are likely to look to take on Leinster up front - that is certainly the view of Fogarty.
The Leinster scrum coach has been busy all week and he is only too aware of the importance of Leinster's set-piece standing up to the power that will be thrown at them on Sunday afternoon.
"I think body height across the board needs to drop, because they're a far greater threat at the ball," Fogarty said.
Size
"Jake White. . . defensive rucks, and looking at the nature and the size of the bodies they have, it's going to be incredibly hard to shift them.
"So, making sure that across the board we drop our height, that we're nice and dynamic in our carry and that we can be over the ball when we ruck is a huge part of it.
"The same threats are there with scrum and maul, they've used their scrum very effectively in the Top 14 to get good field position and they've used their maul to score tries.
"They've done that really, really well. For me, they're the two huge things. I'm sure there's other things that Girvan (Dempsey) or Stuart (Lancaster) are focusing on, but for us as a forward group that's the focus: that we're accurate with our shoulder work, have good body height and we can deal with their set-piece."
