FORGET THE SIX Nations for a moment and run the clock back to November. It’s the autumn internationals, and Cian Healy is pissed off. He’s played in all three games, but left camp frustrated and angry. He was on the bench for all three Tests, playing 26 minutes against Japan and 23 against Argentina either side of a five minute cameo against New Zealand.
Now widen the lens to look at Leinster’s season. Healy is on 10 appearances, but only three of those have been starts. He recently moved down from an IRFU central contract to a Leinster one. He’s 34 now, so these things are all to be expected, but that doesn’t make them any easier to accept when they start to happen.
Focus back in to the present day, and Healy seems relaxed and upbeat. He’s sitting in a dressing room speaking on a Zoom call following an open session in the Aviva Stadium where the Ireland squad ‘had the legs ran off us’ by Andy Farrell in front of a couple of hundred enthusiastic school kids. There’s worse places to be, and there’s some big days on the horizon. Andrew Porter’s injury means Healy is now in a two-horse race with Dave Kilcoyne to play against England in Twickenham next weekend.
It was the same story last year, Kilcoyne starting the 32-18 win in Dublin before Healy replaced the injured Munster man after just 20 minutes.
“I’m in a spicy battle now with Killer for the week,” says Healy, as he gears up for cap 115 in green.
“Both of us have been in and out with each other in training and you back each other in that role of getting on top of plays, ‘where we should be?’ and ‘this is what we should be doing’. We’ve been working really well on that I think because we obviously get a bit less reps than the starting team would get, so we’ve been shouldering the burden on each other a bit and working through it and I think we’ve been doing that really well. It’s going to be a nice week for us to get going.”
As he puts it, packed stadiums on Six Nations days are what Healy “lives for”, which is why the bench role was such a difficult transition. For the 2020/21 international season Healy’s Ireland stats were eight caps, six starts. Then Porter moved across the frontrow, and immediately established himself as Farrell’s new first-choice No 1, with Healy’s minutes diminishing as a result.
“I struggled with it in November and I was getting a bit pissed off with coming on a bit later and stuff. But it’s probably from the structure at Leinster and understanding at Leinster that you’re probably going to get 50/30 (minutes) and that’s literally week-in, week-out. I had probably expectations of that instead of going in fairly open-minded about it.
I did have to take a step back and think about what the role is and what do I have to deliver. I was honest with myself, and I was letting it get at me, so I just parked it because if I’m thinking about what minute it is in the game and ‘Am I on yet?’ I’m not really thinking about what I’m supposed to be doing and I’m doing myself an injustice and the team an injustice.
“It was a hard enough sit-down but I enjoyed the process of ironing it out and coming to a decision on how I’m approaching it, and I think it’s done me fairly well so far, since then.
“I discussed it with my wife a bit, but it was probably just myself noticing that I was getting a bit bothered by it, and I shouldn’t be, because I play the game to play the game. I don’t play the game to train every day of the week and I want to enjoy every opportunity there is to actually play the game and not be thinking about minutes or any of that. It’s get in and get stuck into your job, like.”
As well as processing the transition mentally, he’s also changed his weekly routine in a bid to make up for the less physically demanding nature of his weekends.
“It’s been an interesting change, because the start of the season I probably didn’t have a plan in place of how to get that extra bit of fitness or that durability, and now I’ve got a nice structure for during the week,” Healy continues.
“I’m picking up extra fitness sessions or that on the ground, off the ground, up, down, roll-around… That sort of fitness that as close to mimics a game as possible.
“That’s pretty much been a steady fixture in my week, doing that. So I feel pretty fit and getting that run out for Leinster (last month), I felt pretty good. It felt like it was late enough into the game and I was getting off the line in defence and offering a bit in attack, so fitness-wise I think it’s alright.”
Other developments off the pitch have helped too, with Healy and his wife Laura welcoming their first child, Beau, last year, providing a new focus away from the demands of professional sport.
I don’t think it changed my approach to how I go about my business or anything but, yeah, probably downtime is a lot different and I can certainly switch away from it easier than I have before. If you come in off a bad day or a bad loss I’m not dragging that into a house with me. It’s nice.”
During the week, Paul O’Connell described Healy as a ‘secret trainer’, someone who likes to get his hands on some weights and add in a few extras away from the required sessions with Leinster and Ireland.
The same goes for Healy’s approach to recovery and mental preparation.
“I love that side of it. There’s something where you just kind of disappear and work on a few things for a while. It’s kind of like a few personal feel-goods, personal gains, and it benefits you for your sports.
“It is an easy enough thing to do, to set aside a little bit of time to work on A, B or C. You know, you’re sitting on your phone on the evening, looking at the TV, I’d be looking up different recovery strategies, different rehab strategies and not just on Twitter and Instagram for the night like.”
Healy’s latest Leinster contract will take him past the World Cup to the end of next season, by which time he’ll be 35.
“You think about it, like, you would be silly not to think about what you want to do after rugby, especially at this fine age I am. I think about it, it is in mind and I kind of flesh though a few bits. But my main focus is the game and to enjoy every minute in it.”
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Excellent article Murray. It’s the passing that’s concerning. A basic skill, you would assume at this level it certainly ought to be dealt with in training as regards timing. It can’t be perfect in training & poor in matches. So where are the standards vs Joe time when was non negotiable. Jamie O is young but a poor passer when moving and evident since his Leinster debut. We rarely pass in front of each other, almost always static in receiving, and when there is a 1st phase move, it gets stuck in midfield on contact. Bar Hugo try v Italy, very little innovation, attempts to do so. Extremely low risk rugby SA aside, since RWC. And while we love Hugo, nothing in attack from returned kicks. Little evidence Andrew Goodman was the right choice. You can swap the above comments for Leinster too.
@Mark Kearney: agree and add the waning of our ‘power game’ – that’s another point of difference for France and England and why they both ‘destroyed’ Wales and we didn’t.
@Mark Kearney: good point. Lancaster was really hot on passing accuracy and that meant the majority of players coming into Ireland camp under him were on top of their skills. Connacht also playing attacking style since Lam. New Munster/Ulster coaches also emphasize ball handling. I think the change in style at Leinster is really having a big impact on IRL attack. Leinster players concentrate on chasing kicks and being aggressive in défense. Leinster’s attack has been really poor these last 2 seasons but their brilliant defense means they still win. Cc LRO game was case in point. Irelands last 2 6n’s were also built on solid defense btw. People like to praise the IRL attack but it’s our defence was the foundation of our attack. We conceded more tries this 6n’s than in the last 2 combined.
The key statistic is professional playing numbers. In Ireland, we have 180, France, and England have very many more. It’s probably 8 to 10 times more, especially in France. Long-term strategy is surely to have a fifth team probably off the island.
@D Farrell: agree, but we have what we have. We have to revert to having a point of difference, back to most of Joe’s time in Lein & Ireland, was passing. That you can do with existing structure, if you first accept there is an issue. I don’t think we do, and poor standards are accepted across the provinces. That’s on the coaches, and players wanting to improve.
@D Farrell: Wishful thinking, I fear. The revenue to support a 5th team does not exist. Frankly I doubt whether we have the revenue to support four. Especially if the growth of Women’s pro rugby is already acting like an additional province in terms of its financial impact
I haven’t gone back to check but I imagine what has been said (by both fans and media) about this Ireland team/players/coaches is nothing compared to what the French will have had to put up with when we did them last season. They didn’t go through a massive clean out, and I don’t think we need to either. The other provinces other than Leinster do need to pull their socks up though.
It’s no coincidence our attack faltered when Andy Farrell was away. I think it’s forgotten that he is heavily involved in Irelands innovative attack plays and his absence definitely affected this. Also it’s worth mentioning Catt started very poorly with Ireland and became instrumental in our brilliant attack over the last few years. Maybe Goodman needs time to bed in also
Being third in what many considered a two horse race can’t be considered a success .
However it reflects the approach of the Irish management based on defence . Both Irish wings selection and reputations based on their performance on a catch and kick game .
But teams have stopped kicking deep as blocking in front of the catcher is penalized and the objective is to ensure the ball is behind the defending pack . Thus the reason to pick paceless wings no longer exists .
As previously noted 9 of the 23 are over 30 whose best games are behind them .
I considered that this was last 6 nations for more than PoM Murray and Healy and the preference for Leinster Blue was undeserved by several players .
@SAMUEL T McGLADERY: Who do you think should have been picked on the wings instead of Hansen and Lowe?