Carty the hero in fairytale finale at the Sportsground

Connacht 20

Wasps 18

THIS was Jack Carty’s moment. Pure and simple, a 24-year-old from Athlone with the weight of a province on his shoulders as he stood over a conversion kick, the ball placed on the right hand touchline and his right foot lined up ready to strike it. Win or draw was the scenario, it was last chance saloon.

No position on the rugby field is more scrutinised and misunderstood than the role of the out-half and when there’s a local young lad in the role, often times, it can only heighten both those elements. Connacht fans desperately want their own academy graduate to shine and drive on, in essence to follow in the footsteps of Eric Elwood, but the process of learning on the job has tested their patience at times.

Carty has kicked 55% of his goals this season, a statistic far too low at this level but not consistent with his form in previous years and in terms of the basic match day numbers, not actually relevant in costing Connacht any more than one losing bonus point along the way. That said, his 62nd minute miss in Coventry last week was a momentum killer, no question about that.

One thing is for certain, Carty is as diligent and dedicated to the task of improving when it comes to the role. He has worked closely with Elwood to improve his kicking technique and each bad weekend this season has been followed by a week of additional practice, he’s like a golfer who is close to finding that perfect swing on a consistent basis.

This one kick really does warrant such time in a single report. It was glorious, truth be told, so much pressure, so many doubters, all blocked out by the coolest kid on top of the hill on College Road. The silence was deafening as his right boot struck the ball, the initial trajectory was wide right but that was just a brief few milliseconds before it turned perfectly with the wind and dissected the posts landing in the ecstatic crowd.

Connacht are not playing fluent rugby at the moment. They are creative and skilful, disjointed and muddled. Basically they are a conundrum in recent months and have been all season. Most of the negative stuff is coming from bad luck and lousy circumstances and in a sense, it is out of their control but what is illuminating and uplifting for the followers is the manner in how they are grafting for everything they get.

The fruits of last year’s trophy winning exploits are shining through in the closing stages of big games. They turned over the ball three times in the last seven minutes as they chased the win from a five point deficit yet they never gave up, kept battling right to the the final three seconds when Niyi Adeolokun stole into a ruck and won a penalty he had no right to win.

Full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune