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.