'I've learned a lot about myself' - Carty ready for his Ireland return

For Jack Carty, the key to getting back into the Ireland squad was not worrying about getting into the Ireland squad.

Having earned all of his 10 Test caps in 2019, the Connacht captain was recalled to the Ireland squad for the final game of November as injury cover for Johnny Sexton, watching the Autumn Nations Series win against Argentina as a spectator.

But his form since November has kicked on even further, and he was rewarded with a place in Andy Farrell's 37-man Six Nations squad last week, leapfrogging Harry Byrne in the pecking order to join Sexton and Joey Carbery as the out-half options.

The 29-year-old still has work to do in order to beat Carbery to a place in the matchday 23, but barring injury it seems all three out-halves will see some game time during the course of the next eight weeks.

And while he admits returning to the Test arena is something he has worked towards for the last two years, he says it only became a possibility when he stopped allowing it to control him.

"It was always the goal, I think maybe when you try to focus too heavily on a goal, you might get lost in the part in between," he said, speaking from Ireland's pre-Six Nations camp in Portugal.

"It wasn't until I stopped worrying about it and got back to what I had to do daily, weekly, monthly, that I was able to slowly get back to where I am now.

"That being said, I'm still not where I want to be. I'm going to worry about the end goal when that comes about.

"Previously I was so hell bent on getting to that end goal, that maybe off the field I was probably a disaster to be around at times.

"When I play best I have a smile on my face. If I can set up things off the field to be in a place where it needs to be, it enables me to excel and do what I