Focused Healy itching for championship action

Cian Healy is a mobile enough loose head to know most of the Aviva Stadium playing surface fairly intimately by now, but the replacements’ bench will be unfamiliar terrain for him tomorrow evening.

Of his 47 caps, just two have been earned as a replacement, both of them coming against Samoa. Even his first cap against Australia, in November of 2009, was won on the back of an 80-minute slog, so when he is fit, he tends to start.

But not tomorrow.

Tomorrow he will sit on the bench and watch Jack McGrath wear the number one jersey, probably for the bones of an hour, before Joe Schmidt summons him for what will be his first game of rugby in almost half a year.

The root cause of that was a hamstring torn completely off the bone in what was called a freak training accident at the start of the season. It was, he has reckoned, the worst injury in his career so far.

The subsequent surgery called for pins to reattach the snapped hamstring and even getting out of bed was an activity that required his full concentration. Starting on the bench? Yeah, he can deal with that. For now.

“Aw, delighted, yeah,” he said on being chosen in the match day 23.

“I haven’t thought too much about it, it was more getting my head around being back playing rugby and being on the pitch training and getting all the moves correct and trying not to let the occasion of playing a game overwhelm all of that. I have to be fairly sharp on moves because it’s been a long time since I’ve played any of them.”

He remembers how this gig goes.

His early days at Leinster were spent biding his time behind Ollie Le Roux and Stan Wright, but he doesn’t believe there is any great secret in what to do as a member of the second wave apart from to fit in, don’t mess up and don’t look for the miracle play.

“If the scrummaging goes well for me when I come on, and if I get a couple of carries or whatever and the lineout goes well, it can be an immediate impact. It’s getting all those basics done and getting settled in.

“So, with something like that, it’s about keeping switched on, what’s best for the team going forward and not personally for me to shoot out of a line to smash someone or to push my side of the scrum around. It’s the overall doing I’m looking for.”

Until then, he will look on, as he has done for most of the season, hoping McGrath has a beast of a game and at the same time dealing with the pang of jealousy every sports person feels when seeing someone else do well in their line of work.

“It’s terrible, but I was delighted as well watching him in November. It’s tough to watch but I’m delighted to see him going out and killing other props and playing well. He’s owning that jersey and I’ve got to put in performances to try and get it.”