Leinster’s Cian Healy relishing his opportunity against Castres

Cian Healy has to learn to curb his enthusiasm, even though it's a natural inclination when disputing a starting jersey on a team where opportunities are rationed.

It's a self-admission from the 29-year-old Lions, Ireland and Leinster prop, addressing what he acknowledges as a lack of discipline in a recent Guinness Pro12 defeat to Munster at Thomond Park.

Jack McGrath has usurped Healy as the first choice loosehead prop for Ireland and Leinster, a flip-flop of the previous primacy, so when the latter is handed a chance to start Friday night’s Champions Cup game against Castres Olympique at Stade Pierre Antoine – McGrath is on the bench – he understands that opportunity knocks.

“I was fairly high strung going into that [Munster] game, yeah. [They were] silly sort of penalties [that I gave away], I think I was trying to push a bit too far, and not really playing naturally. So I’ll try and do that [play naturally] and be as relaxed as possible.

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“I performed poorly on the discipline front, and that was itching away at me a bit. You can’t afford to do that when you’re given the opportunities. Apart from that, it’s been edging away in the right direction I think.”

A quick look at the statistics governing the respective performances of Healy and McGrath at Leinster this season illustrates that the Clontarf man has started more matches (eight with a further five off the bench, compared to McGrath’s figures of seven and four) but that the St Mary’s prop has played just 33 minutes less (523 to 556) despite playing two fewer games.

They have missed the same number of tackles (six), while the difference in penalty count against them (McGrath eight, Healy seven) is ostensibly negligible. Healy leads the way on turnovers (eight/two) and defenders beaten (11/2) but McGrath makes more metres per carry and has more try assists.

Bare facts

These are the bare facts but there is more flesh to be added to the skeleton of performances. McGrath has been consistently excellent and the swagger and brio of the Healy of old is visible once again after serious injury.

Leinster are in a good place, well served on big match days by two outstanding players, so too Ireland, where the depth of the roster is supplemented by other standouts, Dave Kilcoyne, James Cronin and Denis Buckley.

But while Healy takes note of the strengths of others, he prefers to focus on his strengths. “I’d certainly look at it [what others are doing], yeah. But I also play my own game.”

A trip back to frontrow finishing school in France no longer holds any fears because scrum sessions at Leinster training replicate that intensity. Healy explained: “We’re not going to have as difficult a task as we have on the paddock out the back here.

“There’s lads here going for Leinster and national jerseys against each other and the level the scrum sessions get to is worse than in most games so I think Fogs [John Fogarty] has us prepared pretty well with what we’ve been doing and how hard we’ve been going against each other; pushing or limiting how much we do to look after us.”

The primary objective in Castres is for Leinster to deliver on the opportunity they have created from their performances in the first five rounds of the Champions Cup and earn their dues of a home quarter-final at the RDS.

Healy concurred: “ “I think it’s about doing ourselves justice here. We’ve done well and we’ve played quite well bar a couple of games that didn’t go to plan, but to be able to come out of this section of games pretty happy with what we’ve done, we’d take a win.

“So not to just scrape a win, to win the way we want to, to win playing the rugby we want to and put together that sort of game. It would be great [to get a home quarter-final] but it’s also rewarding the support we’ve been given so far.

“The RDS has been insane, especially for last week. That was an incredible atmosphere. To be able to give them another big day out like that in Dublin for the supporters would also be in our minds.”

Plenty to play for therefore, individually and collectively.