Healy becoming accustomed to life on the frontline

A HALF-TIME lead of 16-6 is a nice cushion for any side. But with the scoring values these days, a converted try can turn a game on its head and that’s what Wales were thinking when they scorned a couple of kicks at goal in search of a pushover or penalty try early in the second-half of last Saturday’s clash with Ireland at Croke Park.

As the first couple of set pieces saw the Irish on the retreat and referee Craig Joubert clearly on the alert to possibly award a penalty try, an extraordinary thing happened. Down they went for a third time and this time it was the Welsh who were blown off their feet as the entire Irish scrum sent them back at a rate of knots. It was one of the game’s defining moments and after Jonathan Sexton had found a relieving touch, John Hayes, Rory Best and Cian Healy were entitled to wear a quiet smile.

“We were on our own line so we had to do it,” was Healy’s simple explanation. “Otherwise it was going to be five or seven points the other way. We train for that. We want to walk over teams with our scrum. That’s what we do in training, what happened on that scrum.

“The mindset in that situation is to never go backwards. It’s saying to myself, ‘I won’t go backwards. I’ll go down if I have to, but I won’t go backwards’. That’s pretty much it. Everyone focussed a bit more. When you’re under the pump, it’s easier to focus and when you have a bit of fear about you. It’s easier to lose concentration around the pitch but when you’re on your own line, it’s do or die, so it had to be done.”

It will be recalled Cian Healy was the victim when John Hayes stamped on him during the Munster-Leinster game last October, an unprecedented and unintentional act that cost The Bull a six-week suspension. But that’s all water under the bridge now and Healy has huge respect for Hayes. And asked if he’d like to carry on as long as the man from Cappamore, his face lit up as he answered: “I’d love to.”

Cian Healy is still only 22 (five days younger than teammate Keith Earls) and extremely young for a player in the loose head prop position. His rise to the top, however, hasn’t surprised those who recognised his potential from his early days at Belvedere College and later as a member of Ireland’s Grand Slam winning side in 2006.

He quickly graduated to the Leinster senior squad to become a key member of the Heineken Cup winning side last year in only his second full senior season.

“The whole thing has been quite electric,” says the quietly spoken, 6 foot, 17 stone 4 lbs Clontarf man. “Now a new chapter is opening and I’m enjoying trying to take advantage of it. I’ve seen the challenge of upping my game that bit more and trying to get a bit more out of myself. The lads have helped me an awful lot as well. The information they put in drags a lot more out of me as a player.

“It’s a great team, we’re all kind of buddies so it doesn’t matter who you’re rooming with – unless it’s Sean Cronin and he snores!

“Camp life is good, although I don’t mind taking the odd night off and going home, just to cleanse the soul and chill out a bit. Rolling out of bed and going to training is nice, but if you have a late morning, you can go home and sleep in your own bed.”

Healy brushes aside the fact that he is still one of the youngest international props in the game. So you wonder if he has to pinch himself to be sure it’s all really happening.

“Sometimes, but you can’t get caught up on something like that,” he stresses. “You just have to take the reality, go with it and not get caught up in any moments. You get left behind if you’re sitting on something like that. It’s about constantly trying to keep up with where we’re trying to go as a team and what we’re trying to do. It’s nice to be in there as a young pup. There are a few young props coming through in all the different teams. It might put a bit of pressure on John and the boys.”

One of the more remarkable stats from the Ireland-Wales game is that there were only five scrums in the 80 minutes.

That should allow for greater freedom to move for props around the field and that in turn plays right into the hands of Healy, who is developing a reputation as a formidable ball carrier. Once more, though, he plays the cards close to his chest.

“It doesn’t matter how many there are, you have to do it for every scrum,” he says. “You have to be able to play ball too, you can’t just scrummage.”

Ireland are indeed fortunate to have a young man of so much potential operating in a very important position.