Best confident Kilcoyne can step it up against Scotland

For all the confusion surrounding Cian Healy’s three-week suspension, there is one thing that is certain — he will not be playing at loosehead prop for Ireland against Scotland a week on Sunday.

That task looks likely to fall upon the broad shoulders and considerable neck of a 24-year-old Munster forward for whom Heineken Cup rugby was a pipe dream only a year ago, let alone a Six Nations Test start.

Dave Kilcoyne’s career trajectory just keeps inclining and while he may face strong competition from Ulster’s equally in-form loosehead Tom Court to fill the breach vacated by the errant Healy at Murrayfield when the championship resumes, the Limerick man has been next in line since the autumn, and impressing all those around him into the bargain.

November saw his Test debut as a blood substitute for Healy in the opening Guinness Series match against South Africa and there have been further runs off the bench against Argentina, Wales and, last Sunday, England.

Hooker Rory Best missed the November Tests due to injury, but the Ulster man has spent this Six Nations getting to know the Munster loosehead and he likes what he sees, even given his natural allegiance to Court.

“Having missed the autumn and in trying to get the starting combinations right, we haven’t had a lot of scrums together but the few we have, we had one or two very important ones in Cardiff,” Best said of packing down alongside Kilcoyne.

“I’ve been watching David this season and the Munster scrum has been going well and he seems to be doing very, very well in the scrums as well as about the pitch, so if he comes in, I suppose Tom Court will come onto the bench or he might start but whichever prop, both boys are going really, really well. With Cian playing and David and Tom really snapping at his heels, it’s a shame not to have Cian there playing but to have the two boys ready to step in, it’s really encouraging.

“It’s great to see, there’s a few young boys there that have come in this season and have not just shown in one or two games but shown consistently so far this season. We’re probably over halfway through the club season and certainly in that Munster team and in the Ulster team, David and Tom would be two of the standout players.”

Further exposure to Test rugby can only enhance Kilcoyne’s depth of knowledge, experience and street smarts further, Best contended yesterday, at the start of a two-day mini-camp back on the Carton House training ground in Kildare.

“Last week especially we did a few live scrums in training and he did really well there and I think it’s going to be one of those, another step for him. Another one of those big, sharp rises. He’s played Rabo games and then made a step up to Heineken Cup in the autumn. Now, whichever (prop) starts, it’s going to be a big step up from even Heineken, for either of the boys, but for David, that’s what young guys need. They need to go out and play and whether it’s a start or 20 minutes off the bench, it will be big for his development.”