After initially joining on loan, an impressive run of form helped the 27-year-old to earn a permanent deal at Connacht in advance of the current campaign. Despite the emotional attachment he still feels to Munster, Wootton will be doing his best to keep it in check when Johann van Graan’s charges pay their latest visit to Galway.

“I can only speak for myself. I don’t know about the other lads who came up here but that [proving a point] doesn’t cross my mind to be honest. The only thing I think about when I play Munster is just to not be emotional because those things can come into play,” Wootton acknowledged.

“I know what I need to do when I go onto the field. Therefore, if I know what I need to do and emotion comes into play, that can take you off task. From my point of view, that’s how I deal with rugby in general really. I try to stay away from the emotional side.

“There’s no trying to prove a point because I know what I’m capable of and I’m sure Munster fans know as well from the years I’ve been down there. It’s a different set of circumstances why I ended up here.”

While he was effectively signed for the 2020-21 season, Wootton’s Connacht debut actually arrived against Ulster in the Aviva Stadium at the end of the previous term. The first game either side had played since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, that encounter on August 23, 2020 was also his first on-field appearance in just under nine months.

Given the lack of game-time he was getting at Munster — due to a combination of injuries and being down the pecking order for a back-three spot — Wootton admits moving to Connacht was an easy decision in the end.

“It was having a conversation with the coaches up here and having the opportunity to play more rugby really. I was away from family and friends for eight years but that last part of the eight years, I wasn’t playing much rugby. If I’m away from family and I’ve moved over to a country to play rugby and I’m not playing rugby, well then I’m losing out really.

“I had an opportunity to come up here and potentially play more rugby, so it was an easy decision. Looking back, it has been the right thing, but it was always going to be good because I had the right intentions.”

Wootton showed what he could do last season with a consistent run of games under his belt as he registered an impressive haul of 11 tries from 21 appearances. In addition to being the competition’s joint-highest try scorer — alongside Marcell Coetzee (Ulster) and Scott Penny (Leinster) — he was also named on the Pro14 Dream Team at the end of the term.

A calf injury kept him sidelined for the early weeks of 2021/22, but he returned to action against the Ospreys on November 26 and crossed the whitewash in a magnificent European Champions Cup triumph over Stade Français earlier this month.

Currently seventh in the URC table, Connacht’s clash with Munster is just one of two games in the competition to be given the go-ahead this weekend. A clash of two contrasting styles, Wootton expects tomorrow’s showdown to raise the spirits of the Irish rugby fraternity following a difficult end to 2021 that has seen several ties being postponed for Covid-related reasons.

“For sure, we know what is coming from their side of things. They are an incredibly physical team. They kick to compete and they don’t like the ball in play. Whereas from our side of things we are the complete opposite,” Wootton added.

“It should be great for the spectators to see the contrast in styles of play. Over the past few seasons, this derby has really grown and come to the forefront of the interpros which is great from both sides.”