Cian Healy was caught unawares, undone by subterfuge and stealth. Devin Toner, whose record he broke to become Leinster’s most capped player on 281 appearances in the victory over the Dragons on Friday night at the Aviva Stadium, dropped over a gift and card, while his former team-mate was at the Captain’s Run on Friday.
Healy rang to thank him and had a chat, so the last person he expected to see in the Leinster dressingroom after the game was Toner, presentation box and cap in hand, to say a few words. It took a monumental effort to retain his composure.
Healy admitted: “He spoke some unbelievable words and was very close to having me in tears. It was a special moment, real nice, and I hope it’s something I can do in the future for someone else.”
“They [coaches and team-mates, past and present] made a huge effort, made it a special week for me, but the personal feelings about it, I just tried to park to try and be in the best head space for a game. I do have a great feeling of pride at the moment, and I think further on, I’ll delve a bit deeper into what it is and what it actually has taken to get here.”
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He was pressed to namecheck some of the more influential figures in his rugby career, Leo Cullen, Jacques Nienaber, Seán O’Brien, Stu Lancaster, Joe Schmidt and Michael Cheika, all received a mention, but he stressed that it was an exhaustive list containing many more contributors.
There’s no doubting the most important. “Laura, my wife, has been rock solid by my side. Last season was probably one of the most challenging with time away [from her and] the two boys, three stints in South Africa. She just doesn’t bat an eyelid at it, tells me to go and enjoy the game.
“That’s a huge support and something I don’t take for granted. After rugby, hopefully I can pay that back.”
His sons Beau and Russell weren’t at the game, as he adopted a pragmatic approach. “I’m not messing with the routine! I’d rather have them in great form in the morning and play with them than keep them up until 11 o’clock at night.”
Considering his injury profile, including a couple of serious ones, it is remarkable that he’s racked up 412 appearances between Leinster (281) and Ireland (131) and may overtake Brian O’Driscoll’s Irish Test match record mark during the November series.
It is incidental rather than a preoccupation. He explained: “It’s not so much about going past Drico, it’s about winning and achieving things with groups of people. That’s something that seriously drives me.”
Healy has needed every ounce of that determination at times during his career as injuries denied him access to former attributes and forced him to discover others. He paused briefly to take stock when he reached a particular milestone.
“I did when I landed on 400. I personally thought that was a cool number of games to hit and that to me was like, ‘wow, I didn’t think I’d get this many games playing for this club and my country’. I took a bit of stock and enjoyed that, but it was in the middle of one of the tournaments, so it was fairly [a case of] ‘crack on!’”
Targets from here on in, are modest. He doesn’t think he’ll make 450. Healy did confess that “this probably will be the last one [year] but the body is good. It has its aches, but it always had its aches. If you mentally give into those aches and start taking Mondays off training, that’s not what I’m about, so I don’t think it has that effect on me.
“I enjoy the challenge of getting around sore knees and a stiff back and getting through a training session and playing my part. I like that. It’s like a small personal win that nobody else needs to know about. That’s what gets you through hard days of training, the micro-bits of the game that I enjoy.”
He was asked about whether he is prouder of the trophies and medals or his durability and longevity. “I don’t know. I’ve a cabinet in my house with caps and medals, I don’t have jerseys on my wall, so they’re the things I see, they’ll spark memories to me of certain years and certain teams.
“I enjoy thinking of, ‘oh yeah, I was locking it down with Bernard Jackman or Jerry Flannery or whoever’. They’re the sort of memories I enjoy. I’ll eventually tell my kids I played with whoever and they’ll say, ‘no way, he’s a fossil’. It’s good craic, I like that.”
There is a game that the Leinster players enjoy on the team bus whereby they have to name the starting line-up from someone’s debut. Healy’s is fiendishly difficult. His recollections of that May day in 2007, are prop-centric.
Reggie Corrigan and Will Green played their final games for the province, a 19-year-old Healy replaced the former and set up a late bonus-point try for hooker Brian Blaney with a barnstorming run.
So, is there any aspect of how rugby has evolved that the teenage Healy didn’t envisage?
“I was aware when I was starting out my rugby journey that it was still quite a young professional sport. I had these visions that by the year 2018, we would be getting paid like footballers. That’s the only difference. That didn’t happen.” He’s rich in other ways and not done yet. There’s hopefully more silverware to accumulate.
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