Healy and D’Arcy tune in to ‘big vision’

CIAN HEALY and Gordon D’Arcy will bid to make up for lost time following their delayed arrival at the Ireland World Cup squad’s base in Queenstown yesterday, as a bullish defence coach Les Kiss spoke of his “big vision” for the team at this tournament.

Loosehead prop Healy and centre D’Arcy left Dublin on Saturday, four days after the other 28 players, having been told to rest their injuries ahead of the 13,000-mile journey.

Healy had suffered an eye socket injury during the final warm-up Test against England in Dublin 10 days ago while D’Arcy strained a calf muscle on the morning of the squad’s departure.

“The injury has come on fine over the last couple of days and the medical team has been keeping a good watch over it, so I’m just excited to be finally here and get the chance to get back on the field, ” said Healy

D’Arcy echoed the sentiment, adding: “There was a terrible sense of dread for me when the calf tightened up that morning and there was a couple of anxious hours before the scans came through and showed it would not rule me out of the tournament. My focus is to get it right and get on the field to put myself in contention for selection.”

Both Healy and D’Arcy will undergo medical assessments before they resume training while the rest of the squad was due to take part in their first full-contact training session at the Queenstown Events Centre since their arrival in New Zealand. On Thursday Kidney will name his team to face the USA this Sunday in New Plymouth as the Pool C campaign finally gets under way and the head coach was buoyed yesterday by Rob Kearney (groin) and Sean O’Brien (knee) showing no ill-effects from their injuries following Sunday’s training session.

Kiss, meanwhile, spoke about his goal-oriented drive to help Ireland’s players realise their potential in the coming weeks.

“I don’t know if it’s a paradoxical approach, but I’m driven by outcomes,” the defence coach said. “The right processes have to be in place, but I’m not process-focused. I’m driven by outcomes. I have a big outcome vision for this World Cup that drives my daily work, and the bite-sized pieces for me are games. It’s one week at a time and getting the game right in a certain way. I’ve got to deliver the message in a way that players embrace it. They are so keen to fulfil that ambition here and now, because that will look after the big vision at the end.

“Bite-sized pieces, but I’m still driven by something big and beautiful at the back end.”

Kiss is not alone in this squad and management team in thinking Ireland are in a very good place heading into the Pool C campaign, regardless of the poor results from last month’s four warm-up Tests.

“It’s not something I would sing off the rooftops, I think for me I’m an emotion, feel coach. But I think they sense it. With what they are capable of, I know that if we just get it right on the weekly message and the weekly prep, that puts us in that place where we can do anything on any given day.”