At a Second Captains live show last week, Shane Horgan said that he had been chatting to Ronan O'Gara earlier in the day. O'Gara had been talking to another legendary out-half: Dan Carter.
The former All Black currently works under O'Gara at Racing 92. Though, not for much longer with the former Munster man's move to the Canterbury Crusaders imminent.
Carter mentioned Joey Carbery's sublime footwork which led to Darren Sweetnam's opening try for Ireland against Fiji last month, quipping that it was the type of move he was not used to seeing from an Irish out-half.
"I was talking to Ronan O'Gara today and he was talking to Dan Carter, he was talking about Joey's try and he was taking the piss out of Ronan and Johnny Sexton saying that he hadn't seen an Irish number ten make a step and run like that in 20 years," said Horgan.
"I was saying, 'Who was he watching 20 years ago? Eric Elwood was good but I never saw him make those steps."
It just so happened that Carbery - who was also a guest at the Second Captains show - had met Carter a week before the Fiji game. They also ran into each at the Ireland vs Denmark World Cup qualifier. Carter suggested that they should chat further.
I met him two Fridays ago, he was over in Santry [Sports Clinic] doing a bit of rehab. I was lucky enough to meet him at the Ireland vs Denmark game. I just got chatting to him briefly and he said that we should grab a coffee. I was pretty delighted because he was my favourite player growing up.
Carbery is the undoubted heir to Johnny Sexton's number ten jersey with both province and country. Getting the 22-year-old enough game time at out-half - while Sexton is still top dog - is one of Irish rugby's great dilemmas right now.
It is a situation with which Carter could empathise.
He was sympathising with me playing in a different position. He played 12 at the starting of his career, for the All Blacks and the Crusaders. He was playing outside the likes of Carlos Spencer and Andrew Mehrtens. He said learning from them and how to take responsibility for a team was one of the best things he could have done.
Doing that from Johnny and watching how he takes control is probably one of the best things I can do and hopefully I can bring it to my game.
Suggested by Shane Horgan that playing at 15 for Leinster may not give Carbery the same building blocks for the future like playing at 12 did for Carter, Carbery said that he has been getting opportunities to work as a second receiver with Leinster.
"That's something that's come up as well but working with Stu [Stuart Lancaster] he's pretty keen on having two first receivers.
As a 15, I'm a bit more free, especially in attack to free roam a bit. I try to get myself into first receiver on the other side for Johnny a good bit to offer myself as another option so that people can run off me.
That has helped but then again, defending at ten is a lot harder than it is at 15."
