TYRONE McCarthy has two, formidable, Kangaroo-shaped mountains to climb in the near future.

One arrives on Saturday as Ireland attempt to shake off the 42-0 blitz against England in time to face overwhelming World Cup favourites Australia at Limerick’s Thomond Park.

The other is slightly obscured by his immediate surroundings as part of Ireland’s struggling World Cup campaign, but McCarthy has confirmed he will be heading out to Australia ahead of the 2014 season after signing a one-year contract with Queensland Cup side Northern Pride.

It ends five seasons in the top flight with Warrington Wolves for the former Woolston Rovers back rower.

The 25-year-old harbours a strong ambition to break into the North Queensland Cowboys NRL team, for whom Pride are a feeder team, but the sheer scale of the task facing Ireland this week is driving anything else out of his mind for the time being.

“Our World Cup doesn’t get any easier, with Australia to come,” he said.

“We need to work around the ruck area, it is where we let ourselves down against Fiji and England exploited that again.

“Hopefully the home crowd will buy into it and we get a big turnout that gets behind us.

“We know we are the underdogs, like every game we have been involved in, but it is about building as a team.

“We are proud to play for Ireland and we have to make sure we leave this World Cup with footsteps going in the right direction for the sport in our country.

“That we are not just here to make up the numbers, but to ensure rugby league in Ireland has taken some positive steps forward.”

That thought, of building for a better future, shapes his own ambitions, too, and was part of his decision to leave his boyhood club despite the offer of another contract.

“Myself and Tony Smith (Wolves head coach) both felt that I need to be playing and he could not offer me the opportunity to be doing that every week,” he said.

“I am 25, I’m not getting any younger and I just want to play.

“I want to work on some aspects of my game, so I will be playing at Northern Pride initially but this is about my development.

“The opportunity to go out there is too good to turn down and my aim is to push my way into the Cowboys NRL set-up through the Northern Pride team.

“I cannot wait to play out there and kick on with my rugby career.”

McCarthy, a member of Wolves’ 2009 and 2012 Challenge Cup winning teams, has not ruled out a return to the club that helped him grow into the player he is.

“It was a big shame to leave Warrington, being a homegrown lad, but I have left on good terms and there is no reason why I couldn’t come back if I am playing well enough and the club want me,” he added.

“Hopefully as I start to get a few games under my belt in Australia I’ll develop my game a bit more and be in a position to possibly come back a better player.”