“I wouldn’t change anything, because I think if I changed it to play that day, I wouldn’t be the player I am today.”
If you go around the country and ask rugby fans a series of questions about Connacht, there would be a strong overlap in answers. Legends like Eric Elwood, John Muldoon and Bundee Aki would be the favourite players listed, with the 2016 Pro12 win being the unanimous greatest day in their history. Although the win in a sunny Murrayfield was iconic, retrospectively it feels more like a changing of the guard rather than a peak with no follow-up.
All of the modern heroes were there that day. John Muldoon was the deserved victorious captain, while Bundee Aki and Tiernan O’Halloran were influential. Recent internationals Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham and Kieran Marmion all featured too.
However, current captain Jack Carty had to watch from the stands. Carty ruptured his spleen in a freak holiday accident in Dubai earlier in the year, and despite missing this incredible day, he has no regrets about it. As part of a feature length interview which will go live this Friday, we spoke about the highs and lows of the day, and how he feels it pushed him onto greater things.
CS: {The season you won the league} your season was cut short, due to a freak accident, do you want to touch on that?
JC: “So after we played the Scarlets at home, and then we had a week off. So I went to Dubai and on the Friday morning going down a water slide, nicked it off the corner, like just as I was going around the bend I hit it.”
Jack thought he was winded but what started off as an innocuous accident became worse and worse. He was taken to hospital, unable to move with the pain. They confirmed that he had ruptured his spleen.
JC: {They explained} “We need to try and clot it and if we are not able to clot it, we’re going to have to remove it. So they weren’t able to actually clot it and I had to have it taken out over there”.
The accident brought his season to a near halt, he would feature just twice from there, playing less than an hour of rugby, having previously played every game. Carty though does not look back with the regret that you would allow for. Instead he credits missing Connacht’s biggest day as the reason for his career taking off afterwards.
JC: “I suppose when I look back on it, I know it’s a really weird one, but I look back obviously with great disappointment.
So you can look at it: would Connacht have went on to win the title if I was playing? Who knows? Like they may not have won if I was still fit.”
“Then from a personal level, if that [accident] didn’t happen, I wonder whether I would have had the hunger to go on and do the things I did there after. So I think up until that point I was a good pro. I was a good player, but I don’t think I had the level of consistency that came after that which led to me getting picked for Ireland.”
It’s really remarkable honesty from the Connacht captain. He later goes on to summise it all by saying “a bad thing is only a bad thing if you don’t make something out of it.” To have the wherewithal to link a freak holiday accident to becoming an Ireland international and Connacht captain, because it brought a new lease of life and hunger to his game, is brilliantly refreshing.
JC: “I wouldn’t change anything, because I think if I changed it to play that day, I wouldn’t be the player I am today.”
The full podcast episode is now available, as Jack also discusses his rise through the ranks at Connacht, being captain and the infamous 2019 Rugby World Cup.
This interview marks the start of a busy few months here with in-depth Six Nations coverage and a host more of feature interviews. Stay tuned for more!!
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