2 days Ago By Irishexaminer.com
Evolution. It’s become a bit of a buzz word in sports and it speaks for the very modern approach to life that insists we must always be looking to the next thing. That’s fine and dandy for the most part, but it’s important to absorb and to exist in the moment too.
To live a little with it. Cian Healy became the sole record holder in terms of Irish caps on Saturday when he came off the bench against Australia to make a 134th appearance in a (specially commissioned) green shirt. ‘Church’ obviously didn’t do that by sitting around thinking about how great he, or life, was.
He explained late on Saturday evening about the lengths needed to make it this far at 37 years of age. How there has never been a “rinse and repeat” ethos to his approach each pre-season. Sometimes it's just to be supremely fit, others years it has been a focus on mobility, or on sheer strength.
That’s been his super power. What has kept him fresh. The Leinster prop has always been uncomfortable with any of the frills and the spotlights than can come to the individual with the professional game, but there was a new ease about him at the weekend as he walked out last onto the field just after three o’clock and accompanied by his two young sons Beau and Russell.
He had difficulty in holding the emotions together during the anthems – “Don’t know why, there wasn’t anything particularly on my mind” – and he noticed how the PA system belted out Hozier’s ‘Take Me To Church’ when it came time for him to make his entrance with 13 minutes left to play. Healy had already sat down for a TV interview with his old teammate Brian O’Driscoll earlier in the week – he even managed to enjoy that. And he had been present enough in the moment to take in the fact that a fellow Belvedere College man, Ollie Campbell, was on the pitch pre-game as part of the ceremony.
“It was very good, a great surprise. Ollie is ever present on the texts so we have the Belvedere tie and I get the odd message or letter here and there from him, so it was nice to have him in. The big learning was from my 100th [cap was] I tried to push everything to the side and battle what was going on a little bit.
“It just made it pile up and up and up so [this time] I was on the phone responding to as many texts as I could while keeping my game face on and going about my business, just building up for the game and not trying to shy away from it, try and walk towards it a little bit.” His achievement is nothing short of outrageous. Healy had already taken over the mantle as Leinster’s top appearance holder when playing game number 281 for the province back in September, so that’s over 400 top-class games played now in a punishing sport and in one it’s most punishing positions.
It’s all the more remarkable when we think back to 2015 and a serious neck injury that pushed him to the brink of retirement at the age of just 28. He admitted after that the papers were already signed to finish up before a corner was turned. Where that resilience comes from he can’t say.
“Oh, I haven't got a clue. I don't know. I hurt myself a lot on BMXs and skates and stuff when I was younger and I always came back from that.
So I don't know, it's kind of been something I've continuously just done. It's a means to get back to do what you want to do and be where you want to be, so it's kind of an easy thing to dig into.” Adaptation has been key to this.
Healy has come off the bench in 22 of his last 25 games for Ireland. The last time he started more than he subbed was the 2020/21 season, Andrew Porter’s conversion from tighthead to loosehead pushing him one rung down the depth chart. “Oh I haven't got a clue.
I don't know, I hurt myself a lot on BMXs and skates and stuff when I was younger and I always came back from that. So I don't know, it's kind of been something I've continuously just done. It's a means to get back to do what you want to do and be where you want to be, so it's kind of an easy thing to dig into.
” Enjoyable as the day and the achievement was, he’s not done yet. Far from it. “I’m not driven by the number of caps.
It is not something that pushes me on. Like, winning and success with the group, trophies and that, drives me on. Please god now I can keep playing and not get injured or anything like that and Simon (Easterby) might consider me for the Six Nations.
”.
