There’s only one real solution…

Former Ireland head coach Eddie O’Sullivan believes it may benefit the national team in the long-term if Joey Carbery packed his bags and left Leinster for another province.

Joe Schmidt has said time and time again he wants Carbery to play more games at ten. But with Johnny Sexton the first-choice playmaker for both Leinster and Ireland, he understands he can’t have it all. Or can he?

A move to one of the other province’s for Carbery would mean more game time at ten, allowing Carbery to develop as Sexton’s eventual replacement says O’Sullivan. Speaking on Against the Head on RTÉ last night, O’Sullivan said.

“It is extremely unlikely that he is going to get, in the current set-up, enough rugby at ten before the next World Cup to give him a chance to play at the level he needs to play at,” O’Sullivan said.

“If anything was to happen to Jonathan Sexton and he doesn’t have the experience of managing a game and it comes unstuck, we will all be giving out about it. That has to be fixed somehow. It is a huge dilemma. Nobody wants to say it but maybe he needs a season at ten outside of Leinster if he is going to make that big step.

“I won’t suggest anywhere because I’ll only get shot for it! That is the only real solution if he is going to get week in, week out rugby at ten. It’s not going to be at Leinster because the number one ten for Ireland is at Leinster.”

Meanwhile Leinster senior coach Stuart Lancaster says there were plans to play Carbery at ten in the build-up to the Six Nations, had he not suffered an unfortunate wrist injury against Fiji.

“It is such a shame he has picked up this injury now because there are windows [to play at 10 for Leinster] around the corner.” Lancaster said

“We’ve got two Pro14 games, the two Exeter games and four or five Pro14 games. There is no way that Johnny [Sexton] would have played all those. He [Carbery] would have played at 10.

“Unfortunately, the injury now means that he will miss that window. He is still very young and I’m very confident – he works on and off the field – he will develop into a great 10.”

What do you think? Should Carbery stay at Leinster or leave in search of some regular minutes at ten?