A record-breaker for Connacht, fly-half Jack Carty has become a key player at club and international level.

Known for being a big game and big moment player, Carty became Connacht’s all-time leading points scorer in the Guinness PRO14 in March 2019 – second only to the legendary Eric Elwood on the all-time list.

With 139 appearances and 775 points to his name, as well as having played a key hand in his province’s 2016 title triumph, Carty is a living legend for The Devil’s Own.

And his success at Connacht has seen Ireland recognition come his way too, with his international debut coming in the Guinness Six Nations contest with Italy in February 2019.

But, still just at the age of 27, the feeling persists that Carty could yet achieve much much more in rugby.

And that was never his first sport for long periods of his life! Here are five things you may not have known about the man from Athlone.

Carty was ‘the one that got away’ for both Gaelic football and football

Yes, that’s right. Carty didn’t initially make his name in the oval ball sport.

Instead, he rubbed shoulders with future professional Gaelic football and football stars at junior level – and more than held his own.

Carty represented Roscommon at minor level in Gaelic football, captaining the Roscommon Under-16 team to the Ted Webb Connacht Championship in 2008 and winning a Leinster juvenile Gaelic football title with his school Marist College having endured a midfield battle with current Westmeath man John Heslin.

It wasn’t just his Gaelic football prowess that made Carty the sporting darling of Marist and one to watch though, as his footballing skills also caught the eye.

Standout showings for the Athlone team in youth tournament the Kennedy Cup brought him to the attention of football scouts and saw him offered trials with Southampton and West Ham, while he also played at age group level internationally as far as the under-15s alongside current Ireland internationals Robbie Brady and Jeff Hendrick.

His brothers are good sportsmen too!

The surname Carty must carry a lot of weight in Irish sporting circles.

That is because as well as Jack being a rugby star for both Connacht and his country, his two brothers Ben and Luke have also got good sporting acumen too.

Ben is a former player of the year with their beloved amateur club Buccaneers while Luke was also an excellent Gaelic footballer and is a regular for Connacht’s second-tier rugby side the Connacht Eagles.

All this begs the questions: is there any sport that the Carty’s couldn’t turn their hand to successfully?

And his dad is Connacht club President!

The Connacht connection runs further still.

Not only have two of his two sons both played for the second-tier side and had strong links to the club throughout their lives, their father Ted is also club president.

It was in May 2019 at the Connacht Rugby AGM that Ted was officially named club president for the 2019/20 season, adding another branch to the Carty-Connacht ties.

Carty is a mental health ambassador

Alongside his success on the pitch, the prolific No.10 has sought to create meaningful change off it by becoming an ambassador for the Tackle Your Feelings campaign.

The campaign encourages people to take control of their mental wellbeing using principles from both sport and positive psychology.

This involvement stems from personal experience for Carty, having previously admitted to struggles with his mental health due to what people were saying about him on social media and difficulties coming to terms with poor performances.

Carty also saw a psychologist to rediscover his love for the game – something which has now returned.

Carty’s life has been intertwined with that of fellow Ireland star Robbie Henshaw

Both 27 and both play for Ireland, but the story of Carty and Henshaw runs so much deeper than that.

It goes all the way back to their family homes on the shores of Lough Ree, just ten minutes apart, as young boys, in fact.

The pair have shared the pitch together since, playing for Buccaneers’ Under-8s and they have followed each other ever since – to Marist College, Connacht and most recently, the Irish national side.

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