Cian Healy gutted to let the lads down
He was on a steep upward curve when the Chiefs came to town. After too many years tormented by injury, he had recovered full fitness and his place at the head of the loosehead prop fraternity with club and country.
Healy had spoken in November about the attention paid in the previous year or so to his diet and how he had shed weight and gained mobility. The man even gave up breakfast.
Then he went and had what could only be called a brain-fart. Exeter were in total control of the ball. A string of players were braced as cover at the ruck and awaiting the scrum-half’s next move when Healy decided to make himself known to Luke Cowan-Dickie on the edge of the gathering.
It was a bad idea, badly timed. Healy caught the England international in the head with a no-arms tackle. Lucky to receive just a yellow card at the time, he felt the full impact of the repercussions when handed a three-week suspension.
“I was pretty devastated, because it was positive intent and I just didn’t do it right,” he said yesterday at Ireland’s team HQ before the squad’s departure to the French capital. “That was a big letdown for me. I was pretty gutted I let the lads down. There was a bit of soul-searching afterwards and I started thinking about how I can positively influence the team and not end up in a position like that again.”
It wasn’t his first slap on the wrist. Healy missed last year’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Clermont Auvergne due to a ban and he served a period cooling his heels two years ago after his knee made contact with Guilhem Guirado’s head in a game against Toulon.
Sweep over a professional career that covers a decade and more though and he could hardly be termed a regular offender, so both Leo Cullen and Joe Schmidt were happy to leave him stew on his own actions before Christmas.
Sitting out the three interpro games over the festive period was punishment in itself, so it was a relief to discover Schmidt, who started him ahead of Jack McGrath in November, had kept faith for this Six Nations opener.
“Jack and me have been battling. It didn’t help, me getting myself out of the game for a few weeks, but I worked hard, treated that as a mini pre-season and flogged myself, because I knew there would be a pretty big task at hand.
“I’ve seen it before,” he explained. “When Jack gets a jersey, you’ve got to cut it off him to get him out of it again, so there was no foot off the gas for that and it’s been head down since. Delighted when I got the call.”
Healy should know that discipline in Paris is paramount. His first experience of the Stade de France was a 33-10 loss eight years ago when, after an encouraging start for the visitors, he picked up a yellow card for tackling Francois Trinh-Duc without the ball. Ireland shipped 10 points in his absence.
He was injured the last time Ireland visited Saint-Denis, but there are lessons for everyone to take from that day in 2016 when the French turned the screw on a brittle Irish scrum after the break and won 10-9.
The introduction of Rabah Slimani — as well as Eddy Ben Arous — was pivotal. Now with Clermont, Slimani is rated by many as the world’s best tighthead scrummager, but it’s a description that elicits a smile from Healy.
“He’s a tricky character. He’s got a lot of dark arts up his sleeve and gets away with a lot of it and doesn’t get away with some of it. We have to plan that he is going to get away with it. We have structured our scrum in such a way that we should be able to deal with it.”
Ireland’s scrum is in a much healthier state than it was 24 months ago. So is Healy. His fasting has eased off and, if facing into brekkie again hasn’t been easy, it’s a repeat of his indiscretion before Christmas that he simply isn’t prepared to stomach.
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