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Connacht welcome Ulster to The Sportsground tomorrow for Round 10 of the BKT United Rugby Championship, k/o 7.35pm.
It has been a good few weeks for Connacht on the field winning their last three games including two European matches which puts them in a very good position to reach the knockout stages of the tournament and potentially get a home draw. Missing from those last two games was Connacht captain Jack Carty who is back in the starting 15 for tomorrow's Interprovincial derby at fly half.
Out due to injury, Jack was asked if missing games as captains weighs different compared to not being captain.
"I think its the same to be honest"
"You never want to miss a game as a player"
"Every player in this squad doesn't want to miss a game because that means you're not in control of the jersey"
"Form is a big thing with this squad and if someone gets a chance and takes it, well more than likely they are in control of that jersey"
The past two weeks have seen the teams captained by Jarrad Butler and Paul Boyle which Jack feels shows the depth of leaders the squad has to offer.
"The last 20 minutes against Brive we had David Hawkshaw as captain, Boyler and Gavin Thornbury were off. Then you had Bundee and Marms off the pitch at the time but it was great for Hawky to get that time as it will help him develop and add to the group of leaders we have because you can never have enough of them"
"We have player meetings every Monday where we get different lads to present and get them comfortable to speak on front of the group"
"I'll tell you, doing it first thing on a Monday morning getting up speaking to a load of lads is not the easiest thing but it is good to see other lads becoming more confident and vocal around the group"
"Last year I feel I found myself trying to do too much where as this year a lot of leaders are standing up and helping out which is great"
A day out from the final game of 2022 and it also being a derby against Ulster, Jack is expecting a big physical battle where accuracy will be extremely important.
"They have a massive mauling threat, they have a good kicking which which we will have to negate"
"They try to be relentless in their physicality so we are very aware in terms of how they want to play so we know we need to match that physicality or even trump it"
"We know we need to be accurate with our game"
"In Thomond Park we had the physicality part but our accuracy let us down and we need to get that right against Ulster"
Tickets for Connacht v Ulster are available HERE
