Healy keen to face down the big boys

IRELAND’S new loose head prop Cian Healy is too unassuming to allow familiarity breed contempt when he faces South Africa at Croke Park this afternoon. His direct opponent from the start will be BJ Botha, who plies his trade with Ulster, while one of the Boks’ possible replacements in the front row is Healy’s Leinster colleague CJ Van der Linde.

It’s just another of the little cameos that makes this clash of Ireland and South Africa so appealing, and why the 22-year-old from Clontarf is counting down the hours to his second senior appearance for Ireland.

Progress for such a young man operating in a position usually reserved for those in their late 20s and early 30s has been meteoric but not surprising given he was also a member of Ireland’s U20 Grand Slam-winning team less than three years ago and helped Leinster to Heineken Cup glory last May.

With Marcus Horan ruled out by illness, Healy was the obvious choice for a first cap against Australia a fortnight ago and marked his debut with some trademark open field bursts that caused panic in the Wallabies defence and led directly to one of Ireland’s two tries.

He was rested against Fiji having suffered what he termed “a small injury to my shoulder and the nerve coming from my neck and arm. It’s cleared up now. But I’m glad to get back in because Tom Court had a great game against Fiji.

“I was gutted to be out of contention but now I can’t wait to take on the Boks. Since Declan told me I was in the team, I’ve been buzzing. I’m going to relish going against such a quality scrum.”

Healy will have benefited hugely from his experience against Australia and looks back on the debut with fond memories.

“I didn’t expect to face both Australia and South Africa,” he admitted. “I hadn’t really thought about it - I was going hard at it with Leinster as best I could and that was it.

“Then came the selection and after that going out on Croke Park and lining up for the anthems. It was a strange feeling, it was surreal and I was pretty close to shedding a tear or two. But I just had to zone back out of it and focus on rugby and not my singing abilities. It was a very proud moment but if you get stuck in that you’re going to forget what you’re supposed to be doing and what you’re there for.

“I had to just get back into the rugby mode again. Afterwards I had time to think back on the occasion and how huge it was.”

But he didn’t score himself a perfect 10. He claimed: “My performance was up and down. There were a few bits when I did ok and a few that need work. I’ve done my video work the last two weeks and done a fair bit of training towards what I want to get right. Hopefully I can fix it tomorrow.

“The loose field runs are the part of the game that’s easiest for me. There’s nothing technical about it, I just get the ball and run. I like to do that, I like to get my hands on the ball in a bit of space and I was lucky that once or twice a bit of space opened up for me.”

Nevertheless, most would see the prop’s primary role as a scrummager. And Healy’s ability to cope with whatever his opponents can throw at him today will play a major role in the outcome.

Injury to a few of their leading front rowers means that skipper John Smit reverts to his original position of hooker and that in turn means the Springbok trio will be even bigger than ever.!

“They are a great front row but equally that has given us a great challenge,” asserts Healy. “It’s given us something to work towards and look forward to. I think our scrum has improved since Australia. It was much better in the last game, our set-ups were good and going into this game we’ll be better prepared.

“If and when CJ comes into the game, I think it’ll be great to scrummage against a friend. I suppose he’s watched an awful lot in training and I haven’t gotten to see him in a while I’ll have to do a bit more study on him. Teacher vs student? I don’t know … I think it will just be more of a one on one challenge. Even then, it’s not one on one at all, it’s the whole scrum, but it’ll be good to be able to scrummage straight on him and maybe have a bit of a wind-up afterwards about one or two scrums.

“On the other side of the scrum is The Beast. He’s a great scrummager and a fit and powerful fella and when he brings all that to the table he’s pretty destructive, so that’s something we’re going to have to work on. But I think John Hayes is well capable of dealing with him.”

And finally, Healy’s wish for this afternoon? “I’ve only played one game but I enjoy it at this level – I enjoy pressure, the big crowds, the big moments. Hopefully it will last. What better way to stake your claim than by playing against two of the top three teams in the world.”