The sense of frustration when you’re narrowly missing out on your dream must be painfully palpable when you have to watch some of your best friends achieve it first.  

Joe Carpenter has watched best mate Tom Roebuck, and age group counterparts Raffi Quirke, Arron Reed, Gus Warr, and Bevan Rodd all make international debuts over the past three years whilst he has been confined to England training squads and two impressive ‘A’ appearances.  

Perhaps as a result, Carpenter has not waited patiently on the fringes of the England squad over the past year. He’s knocked on Steve Borthwick’s door aggressively, establishing himself as the league’s form full-back this season as he eyes a spot on England’s tour of Argentina this summer. Regardless of whether the likes of Marcus Smith and George Furbank are available, the 23-year-old has earned his spot.  

With four tries and six direct assists, the only back-three player with more try involvements than Carpenter is Bath full-back Tom de Glanville – the same man who Carpenter unceremoniously sat down as he scored against Bath at home in a showcase of his improved physicality. No back has carried more than him this season (126, equal with Benhard Janse van Rensburg), and across that large sample size he breaches the gainline at a rate of 81.7% (the sixth best rate in the league, and best for players with over 66 carries).  

By Carpenter’s own admission, Sale’s attacking endeavour has come a long way since the start of the season, which further contextualises those statistics. Despite clear individual excellence, the Leeds-born man is clear on what needs to be done to earn a full test debut.  

“The England tour is massively in the back of my mind,” says Carpenter. “Ultimately, you’re going to get picked for tours based on how you play for your club, so we’ve got a massive game on Friday night and hopefully five other games.  

“Winning the Premiership will go a long way in helping me. 

“We back ourselves. I think we’ve always, not left it to the last minute, but thrived with a knockout mentality. Last year we had to win five out of six and we did. They gave us a 17% chance of making top four before the Six Nations, so just having that mentality of knowing that no one outside of what we’re doing here thinks we can do it definitely drives us. We definitely think we can do it.” 

Carpenter, who joined Sale from Leeds Tykes as a 19-year-old, does of course know what it takes to get into the squad. He travelled with England to Japan and New Zealand last summer, but could only watch on as Roebuck debuted vs the former, and as Borthwick drafted in Freddie Steward for the injured Furbank in the second All Blacks test. England A caps against Australia A in the Autumn and Ireland A in the Six Nations followed in lieu of a place in the elite squad, but he has ensured, through performance and his own initiative, that he has remained in constant contact with Borthwick’s team.  

“The summer tour was a fantastic environment,” says Carpenter, “but it was frustrating that I didn’t get the opportunity. I think my main takeaway was that the level you have to be to compete internationally is a big step up, the fine margins are highlighted a lot more.  

“Obviously things like quality of pass need to be spot on in the Premiership as well, but the coaches were really driving that if you’re checking boys behind the shoulder, it’s not good enough, if you get to a breakdown half a second off, it’s not good enough, and those can be the things that massively change a game.  

“Getting feedback is more of a proactive thing. I’ve been texting them every three to four games, which I think goes a long way if you go out of your way to ask for it. There are four things that they’ve given me as a main focus: being decisiveness on kick return and shutting down attackers, accuracy with long kicking, and tackle completions.” 

Clearly, Carpenter has the aptitude to take on that feedback. Think his game winning turnover against Northampton where, working alongside Reed he shut off attacking space and got to the ruck half a second before anyone else. Or Reed’s try against Newcastle when Carpenter gathered a kick, chipped, reclaimed and offloaded to tee up his winger.  

More pertinently, Carpenter has the patience required to implement the feedback, should the opportunity come, to make it count when it matters. Carpenter’s full Premiership debut only came in October 2022 aged 21, in a try-scoring display against Exeter. By then, he’d already watched many of his year group earn regular starting spots. 65 caps later, he hasn’t looked back.  

“I think I probably surprised myself in my first season, but everyone who I was close with growing up, like Raffi [Quirke], Roebuck, James Harper, Gus [Warr], Duggie [Sam Dugdale] were already in the squad.  

“I was always thinking ‘it’s got to be me next’. So I had to just be ready for an opportunity and that Exeter game I scored and played quite well, so ended up playing the next week and it just rolled on. I’ve kept the mentality that the shirt’s not mine yet, every week was massive in terms of my performance.  

“I’ve spoken to Roebuck about it with England. He’s one of my closest friends and I was massively proud to see him thrive in that Wales game. I know for him it was a very frustrating year, he was on the fringe but not quite in or getting the minutes he’d have liked, but his mentality was the same throughout. You’ve got to stay ready and train as well as you can, but it’s hard to do that for a year when you’re gagging for a game.” 

It’s perhaps a product of Carpenter’s experience in a squad’s periphery that he has developed into something of a man of the people around Carrington. When he signed a contract extension to 2027 last summer, Sharks Director of Rugby Alex Sanderson labelled him a “future captain” of the club, and as a student of the game, he has become a go-to figure in Sale’s attacking development.  

“We’ve made massive strides in attack,” says Carpenter. “It’s been our biggest work on this season and we’ve had a major focus on getting the ball into wide channels to get myself, Reedy, Roebuck, Flats on the ball. 

 

“Guys like George Ford, the Curry twins deliver a lot of the messages – my IQ of attack is definitely raised because of George, he’s helped me in terms of how many touches I get and making them impactful – so for me it’s more about driving the energy.  

“If guys like Roebuck, Gus and myself – younger lads pushing to be leaders – perform really well then it will only drive everyone else to perform at that standard as well.” 

The importance of that drive is not lost on Sale’s coaching staff. 

“I’m really lucky,” says Sanderson. “Joe’s one of our aspiring internationals, but he’s so humble. That’s Asher’s [Opoku Fordjour] peer group. He’ll never get above his station because of his examples and that helps my job a lot.  

“Joe has really good energy, to the extent where he can detract from sessions because him and ‘Buck will be having a laugh in the backfield. If there’s a tune on in the warmup, he’ll be doing the dancing – every after-season party we do, he’ll rap with Roebuck. They’re really good! They did Stormzy a couple years ago after the semi-final and he did a backflip off the stage and I’m like ‘what are you doing, we’ve got a final!’ 

“The energy he has is reflected on the field. How aggressive he is under high balls, how decisive he is when he’s running balls back. He sparks our counterattack. If he continues his development, he’ll be with England, so his ability might be to his detriment in getting captaincy here; he has got tough competition there, but I don’t think there’s any with greater potential.”