Healy gets back to basics

FOR Cian Healy, the good times just keep on coming.

November used to be a quiet month for the 22-year-old prop. Until this year, that is, when he spent the month before Christmas breaking into Declan Kidney’s Irish side and going head-to-head with the southern hemisphere’s finest.

It was a natural progression for a man who played such a key role in Leinster’s Heineken Cup triumph last May. He returns to European duties on Saturday when the province travel to Parc Y Scarlets.

What’s not to like? “It was great to get involved (with Ireland),” he said this week. “I’ve been very proud over the last while. It’s good now to be back with Leinster and getting back in the swing of things.

“To be going into Heineken Cup fired up, it’s great.”

Healy may have owed his ascendancy to the Irish front row to Marcus Horan’s absence but he probably would have been promoted in the autumn anyway. Healy may have been the new boy but, with Jerry Flannery not long back from injury and John Hayes just back from suspension, it was a trio that opponents knew needed targeting.

So it proved.

“There were things I’d like to be much better at,” said Healy. “The quality of opposition in both games meant I was under pressure. There were parts that were good and parts that I’d like to improve.”

By “things”, it’s a fair bet that he is referring to his scrummaging.

Australia’s Ben Alexander and South Africa’s BJ Botha made life difficult for the greenhorn at scrum time, although the Irish eight managed to prevent a total meltdown despite their difficulties.

“I think it was generally the speed and set-up of our scrum we were uncomfortable with,” said Healy.

“In training we were doing it perfect, perfect, over and over. I suppose just not being used to each other in game time, It’s tough to gel into a great pack like the lads who are there years. I just found I had to try and fit in and step up.

“The last time the Irish boys played was winning the Six Nations and the scrum was brilliant all through that, so I’m just trying to bring it up to that level. A bit more time and hopefully I’ll lift the level.”

The likelihood is Healy will continue to improve as a scrummager. Props, as a rule, don’t peak until well into their late 20s, early 30s and the Leinster man has other, handy, facets to his game.

His rampaging line break during the second half against Australia, when Ireland trailed 13-6, was a perfect example of his abilities in the loose and he was just as big a hit in the dressing room.

Though Flannery admitted it was strange to link arms with someone other than Horan in an Irish jersey, he was full of praise for his new left-hand man in the Irish pack.

“Cian got stuck in,” said the hooker at the time. “He didn’t seem fazed. Sitting next to me in the dressing room he was playing his music and bouncing around.

“You see some lads going white, but there’s no fear of him.”

Which isn’t to say it was all plain sailing. “I was kind of caught a bit off guard for the first few minutes of each of them, to be honest,” said Healy. “As I got into the swing of things it started to work a bit better.

“Maybe a bit more time together as a scrum and we’d have functioned better but that will come in future.”

Onwards and upwards then but the player himself isn’t about to get the run of himself just yet.

“It’s a challenge, getting to play the world champions. It’s an opportunity and I want to take the best of it, but if you get one over you’re not going to stand up on a stage singing. If you’re singing and dancing about beating the best then people down the charts are going to start knocking you off and catching you off guard. There is no place for that sort of complacency.”