Rabo Pro 12 final, leinster
rugby, ulster rugby
The shadow of two different
shirts cast across his back is not how Cian Healy would prefer to go into a
season’s league final. The imperatives around Lions Tours and PRO12 trophies
don’t seamlessly mix and with Ulster quietly simmering in Belfast while the
ballyhoo blows around Joe Schmidt’s players, well it’s enough to demand
caution. In that the loosehead prop is a brand leader.
Healy has never been damned
for being overly garrulous and while he ploughs a Leinster furrow in Dublin
while Warren Gatland does the same with the Lions in Carton House, this week
has been as much about blanking out the thinking of one Kiwi in Kildare, double
guessing another in Ulster and listening to a third in the RDS. Gatland, Mark
Anscombe and Schmidt may laugh about it later.
Where that leaves the
Leinster players is a moot point as two schools of thought diverge. Forced into
playing catch-up after jetting off to Hong Kong, or, on a war footing and
bearing the scars of a long and successful season, form opposing views.
“They have an advantage but
they’re at a disadvantage of not being in another final,” said Healy. “You can
look at it from any way. We’re in a final for Leinster, we’re paying that a lot
of respect. When we get into Lions we will be complete professionals, we’ll be
sitting down, learning the moves and be up to scratch come training time and
that’s that.”
Healy’s no drama queen.
Moving from Leinster to Ireland, especially with Schmidt now in charge, should
be seamless. But with English, Welsh and Scottish players all bringing their
own nuances to the same moves, as well as a completely new set of instructions
designed to undermine Australia, there is a newness to the undertaking with
Gatland.
Hitting the books and
learning the moves can be a difficult process, with some players needing to
walk them through on the ground.
Others are more comfortable
memorising details from the page. In that Healy doesn’t erect barriers where
none exist.
Learning moves
“It depends. I’m alright on
learning moves,” he says. “I can sit myself down and go through a play-book.
That’s the thing. There is a play-book there. We don’t have to go out and walk
through each and every move. Some places don’t use a play-book and you have to
do repetition to learn. These ones, we can read them, we can know where we’re
supposed to be and can run it straight off.”
