Cian Healy wants more action as injury nightmare ends

Perhaps a try in the final stages of the game would have been asking too much of Cian Healy but not rounding off his Ireland comeback with a score will not have dampened the loosehead prop’s delight at bringing a long, hard summer to a satisfactory conclusion.

A year ago, Healy was coming to terms with a serious hamstring injury suffered during a Leinster training session that saw him sidelined until the back end of the Six Nations. Less than four months ago he was undergoing neck surgery.

So after spending his pre-season in rehabilitation rather than rugby, fighting pain as well as his eagerness to get out onto a pitch, the 20-minute run off the bench he got against Canada represented the end of a stressful and uncertain summer.