
Share
31st May 2018
07:46pm BST

Schmidt also said that the intention of the meeting with Cullen was to discuss the possibility of moving either Carbery or fellow Leinster fly-half Ross Byrne to Ulster. SportsJOE understands that Byrne had no interest in moving north while Carbery entertained the idea before Munster then became a viable option."It's new news to me," said Schmidt of Carbery's decision to move south next season. "I haven't had time to digest it personally. It's a decision Joey has taken a bit of time over. It doesn't seem to have affected his performances any. I think he's played very well.
"I understand why Leinster would be desperately keen to hang on to him and why Munster feel that it's a huge bonus for them.
"That's a decision he's made. Apart from him catching up with me, which was nicely photographed, I've left him to it."
Carbery joins Munster on a two-year deal and will arrive at the club alongside EPCR Player of the Year nominee Tadhg Beirne next season."The inital conversation with Leo and myself and David Nucifora was not the best timing for any of us," added Schmidt.
"It certainly wasn't where I wanted to be at the time but I had a job to do. All we asked was if there was any interest for Ross (Byrne) or Joey to go up to Ulster.
"Ulster at the time were looking for a foreign option. They needed to know before midday the following day and so we had to see if there was any chance at all if any of our local number 10's were interested.
"If there was no interest then it was probably a different story. There was a bit of interest from Joey at the time. He mulled that over and I think he got an approach from Munster in the interim and it digressed then into a different conversation."
Explore more on these topics: