‘Beast’ Healy gets ready to rumble

IF you think Cian Healy looks intimidating on the pitch, you should see him on the road.

Plucked out of the hat for media duties earlier this week, the man some call ‘Beast’ pulled up to the Bective Rangers clubhouse in Donnybrook in a mammoth, American-style, metallic silver Ford pick-up truck.

Simon Keogh’s sponsored Opel disappeared in its shadow but, eye-catching as Healy’s ‘wheels’ are, there is no taking away from his performances for Leinster this season. He has worked his very own groove in the front row.

Though he has been steadily building a berth in the first-team squad since making a solitary appearance as a replacement in the 2006/07 season, it was an injury to CJ van der Linde that signalled his big chance.

There were less than 20 minutes gone against Wasps in the group stages at Twickenham back in January when the former Springbok damaged his toe and one of Clontarf’s finest entered in his place.

Healy has started every one of the province’s five games since and has added to his burgeoning reputation with immense scrummaging performances against both Ulster and Munster in recent weeks.

“Yeah, I’m happy enough,” he says, squirming slightly at all the compliments. “It is a testament to all the coaches, Jono Gibbes and Cheiks and the lads as well, Stan (Wright), CJ (van der Linde) and Ollie (le Roux).

“They have done huge work with me and helped me out this season. They have picked me up from where I was and took me two steps above it. I owe an awful lot to those guys for that.”

His progress has been sign-posted for some time. Capped at schools, U-19 and U-20 grades, he won a Grand Slam with the last of those underage sides in 2007 and the honours have yet to start drying up.

A part of the Ireland A side earlier this season, he was also called up to Declan Kidney’s Six Nations extended panel and has been earmarked as a certainty for full Irish honours sooner rather than later.

Tony Ward went so far as to compare him to Nick Popplewell. Healy can’t remember seeing the former Irish and Lions prop play — a frightening thought considering his last cap was only 11 years ago — but others have noted the comparison.

“My dad slagged me about it, but that’s about it. You glance at those things but you have to leave them aside, especially in the week of a Heineken Cup game. You can’t really get caught up with any of the media stuff — no offence.”

He will have to learn to get used to the attention for he is a rarity on these shores — an Irish-qualified prop of real potential. God knows there is a dearth of such men on both sides of the scrum right now.

Healy is no slouch in the loose, hence the Popplewell comparison, but it is in the trenches and the set-piece where his sort earn their pay and it can take years of senior service to master the intricacies of the position.

John Hayes is the perfect example of how props tend to mature with age, so it says something about Healy that he is creating so much of a buzz as a 21-year old.

“I don’t look on it as extra pressure. It might help a bit in the sense that I’d better not let all these people down. In the same way I am just sticking to what I have been doing and hopefully continuing to progress.”

Tomorrow promises to be another testing day at the coalface. The Harlequins pack, after years where it was perceived as a soft touch, has begun to emerge as one of England’s best.

Leinster’s forward unit has followed a similar path to respectability, and Healy and his cohorts know exactly what to expect at The Stoop having watched videos “until our hair has fallen out” in the past week.

“They are a solid scrum. We are coming on as a solid scrum so I think it is going to be a really, really good challenge. To be involved in that challenge, it will be the biggest so far in my career. They are getting pushover tries and stuff.

“That’s something that hasn’t happened to us this season — and won’t happen to us this season. I don’t think we are only looking to hold their scrum either, we are looking to put them on the back foot and get ball for our backrow, nines and 10s.”

Get ready to rumble.