In Woody Allen’s movie To Rome with Love, John says to Jack: ‘If something is too good to be true, you can bet it’s not.’
Impressed by such a sage observation, Jack (played by Jesse Eisenberg) says to John: ‘With age comes wisdom.’
To which John, played by a typically weary Alec Baldwin, sighs: ‘With age comes exhaustion.’
Jack Carty is still only 30, so he’s far from exhausted, but he’s noticed that since reaching that landmark, his body has become more prone to niggles, and the hamstring strain which the Connacht captain picked up in the win away to Zebre Parma almost two months ago and forced him to sit out their last three games was particularly frustrating.
But Jack’s back, and with perfect timing. He’d targeted a possible quarter-final in the Challenge Cup last week but the Round of 16 in Treviso put paid to that, and considering Benetton have a daunting semi-final away to Toulon, there may yet be a silver lining for both him and Connacht.
It afforded him and the team an extra week to prepare for their final URC regular home game of the season against Cardiff at the Sportsground on Saturday (kick-off 7.35pm). The prize for a win would be a place in the quarter-finals, and were they to beat Cardiff and Glasgow in Scotstoun a week later, Connacht would also secure qualification for next season’s Champions Cup.
So this is a must-win game, but then again as Carty reminds us, it’s on the back of winning five must-win games in a row that Connacht have risen to sixth in the table.
“Personally, I don’t like going into games and feeling they have to be must-win, whereas in the middle of the season every game is the same, so I think they should be approached in the same manner. That’s how we’ve built them all up and it’s worked for us in the past.
“Cardiff play on a 3G [pitch] as well and you see how they like to play. They are quite dangerous and they’ve a lot of players moving on at the end of the year, so they’re coming here with something to prove as well, so we’re well aware of that.”
In other words, Connacht don’t have an exclusivity of farewells, be it to Andy Friend in what will almost certainly be the last home game of his five-year tenure or those departing players who will formally do so after Saturday’s game.
But with age also comes experience, and Connacht’s all-time record points scorer (with 1,172 points in 192 games and counting) has the experience now to mentally prepare for games such as this.
“I suppose when I was younger I would have thought you’d be finishing up by the age of 31 or 32, but you definitely have a different outlook on the game in terms of the ebbs and flows, when to hold on to the ball, when to lose the ball, what the opposition like to do and what’s also good for lads around you.
“So, while you might get a few more niggles here and there, you definitely have a wider appreciation of what’s going on and the momentum swings as well. Especially playing at home, you get a very good sense of that.”
What makes Connacht’s rise up the table so impressive is that after their daunting early itinerary – trips to three of last season’s semi-finalists followed by Munster and Leinster – they had one win in their first five games.
“We’ve dug ourselves out of a hole,” says Carty, who now effectively admits Connacht have to start playing knock-out rugby from here on in.
Nor has age dimmed Carty’s ambition, and while he’s fallen down the Irish pecking order, despite his Test career stalling on 11 caps the fire still burns to play for his country.
Putting the possibility of also qualifying for next season’s Champions Cup in context, Carty says: “Yeah, I think it would be massive. A lot of us still have aspirations to play international rugby and that’s where you need to be playing if you want to be selected.
“I think for the fans the type of games you’d be having here would be another step up and for the club’s revenues, and with a new stadium in plan, if we’ve X, Y and Z coming down the tracks, every little bit helps.”
A product of Marist College and Buccaneers, Carty is now in his 11th season playing for Connacht and has long since become part of the province’s fabric.
He’s resisted overtures from elsewhere to remain a one-club man but he admits: “I’ll be brutally honest with you when I was younger it didn’t really mean that much to me. I was just so hell bent on playing.”
But then he talks about the various Connacht teams he’s played on and the growth in the support base.
“You would have walked around Galway 10 years ago and it would have been Leinster, Munster and Ulster jerseys, whereas now it’s just Connacht jerseys everywhere now. That’s indicative to the work that’s been done here.
“It’s games like this Edinburgh one when the Sportsground is packed out that you see what it means to younger fans, and then getting the captaincy it’s something I take immense pride in.”
“You grow up with the values of the place,” he adds, and remembers their humble origins, such as the gym.
“They had to split the backs in half and then split in three groups because it was so small. Seeing where it came from then to where it is now, people may forget the journey we’ve taken. All these new facilities are coming now, so when I think of it in that regard, it’s immense pride.”
Furthermore, with Johnny Sexton also demonstrating that an outhalf’s career doesn’t have to end in one’s early 30s, Carty doesn’t see his age as a barrier to his international ambitions.
“The next World Cup is 2027 so I’m definitely planning to be gearing towards that, so I think you’ll have me for another four or five years.”
