Healy reprieve boosts beleaguered Ireland for France test
Loosehead prop Healy missed last Sunday’s 12-8 defeat by the Scots at Murrayfield having admitted guilt in stamping on England prop Dan Cole during the RBS 6 Nations game in Dublin on February 10.
He had been cited for the incident on February 11 and at his hearing two days later was banned for three weeks, a period that was stretched over four weekends to Sunday March 10 to take account of the first break weekend in the Six Nations Championship.
The IRFU appealed the application of Healy’s three-week suspension rather than the ban itself and at the appeal hearing in Glasgow yesterday the player successfully argued that extending the ban in such a manner was not permissible under the relevant regulations.
The independent Appeal Committee, chaired by Professor Lorne Crerar of Scotland, concluded Healy’s suspension should end a week earlier than originally determined, at midnight on Sunday March 3, thereby making the front row available for selection to face France in Dublin a week on Saturday.
Munster, meanwhile, will welcome back Ronan O’Gara and David Kilcoyne this weekend and they, with Ireland starters Keith Earls, Conor Murray, Donncha O’Callaghan, Peter O’Mahony and Donnacha Ryan, spent their final rest day taking part in a clear the air meeting with their province.
Head coach Rob Penney brought his entire squad together, including the rehabilitating Paul O’Connell, in a Mitchelstown hotel yesterday to address a two-game losing streak in the RaboDirect Pro12 ahead of this Saturday’s must-win clash in Limerick against reigning champions Ospreys.
Missing their Ireland players, Munster went down 34-10 in Treviso with a display described by hooker Damien Varley as “abysmal” and Penney revealed the meeting had seen him turn the “blow torch” on his playing staff in order to get his team back on track.
“That’s the art of rugby. People think it’s all tactical and technical but it’s often there’s a lot of other elements that you have to put together to get a functioning team,” Penney said. “We’ve travelled away twice and haven’t delivered and that’s where people look to the head table and want some direction. That’s my job, like flying a 747, there’s only certain times you get the blow torch on and this is one of them.”