'Last year I found myself trying to do too much' - Carty refreshed after mid-season break

By this stage last season, Jack Carty had quite a few more miles on the clock.

It was actually this fixture 12 months ago - the Christmas Interpro against Ulster - that the Connacht captain first got a chance to rest, and that was only because of the Covid-19 outbreak in the Ulster squad which saw the game postponed until February.

Carty started all nine of Connacht's games last season prior to Christmas, but the addition of David Hawkshaw to the province's out-half stock has afforded a bit more rest this season, and he's hoping he can make it count as the season progresses.

Wrist surgery over the summer saw him sit out the first three BKT United Rugby Championship games of the season, but he returned to start the next six in a row, punctuated nicely by the international break in November.

And with Andy Friend rotating his squad for the Challenge Cup wins against Newcastle Falcons and Brive this month, it's afforded Carty the opportunity to get some running repairs done; a PRP injection on a foot issue that had been bothering him in recent weeks.

"I was managing it for the last six or seven weeks, and when there was a period of time available, I got it done and had to take a two-week break," the Connacht captain said.

"They take blood out of your arm, they spin it and separate the plasma in your blood and re-inject it back in, to promote healing. I got that done down in Cork with Eanna Falvey and it wasn't the most pleasant now, it was quite sore, but I’m hoping it will help."

The rest has been an unusual, but welcome one for the out-half, who the province have had to lean on heavily in recent years.

And he believes that his delayed start to the season, and mid-season breaks, will allow him peak at the business end of the