Cian Healy’s rugby injury profile can be equated to a game of snakes and ladders, albeit that there is nothing trivial in a recurring pursuit of fitness. The severity of periodic setbacks would have broken someone less mentally strong.
The latest procedure, a minor knee operation, represented small beer in terms of what he faced in the past but when the overwhelming desire is simply to play it becomes an irritant. The 28-year-old initially built momentum in the blue of Leinster before returning to the international fold off the bench in Twickenham.
Experience has taught him to stay in the present in playing terms; embrace and enjoy. His sole focus is Ireland’s game against Italy at the Aviva stadium on Saturday. Jack McGrath has excelled in Healy’s absence making the number one jersey his own at province and country but just as they did when those primary roles were reversed they continue to push each other.
Healy explained: “Training is going well. We are just doing two in, two out (scrums). It’s a nice rotation system where we get through a decent workload; (it’s) the same as always for us really.”
Conversation points about Italy invariably alight on the scrum. Martin Castrogiovanni’s absence is not the setback it once would have been. “No, not as the past, there was a while he was the main man. I think they have built a serious unit there that people can slot in and out of and remain as dangerous a pack.
“You see a few small differences. It’s a front up battle for us. We have to win that first part of the scrum, on that set (position) which is getting more important as players are starting to adjust to it, and figure it out; that it is such a key part. We have trained not to be beaten into that area. That’s across the board. It’s not just for the Italian match. That is something that has to be a benchmark.
“We expect a lot of hard scrums and a hard battle. We don’t look too far past that. You have to get the bread and butter right for us, especially as a frontrow. They are renowned (for their scrum work) and it is something that we are working on to be renowned for.
The fact that Ireland and Italy have reached the penultimate game of this Six Nations Championship without a victory suggest an equitable contest in theory but in practice it should be anything but despite a couple of good performances by Saturday's visitors against France and Scotland.
The Italians beat Ireland for the first time in the Six Nations in Rome in 2013 and ran Joe Schmidt’s side to a 16-9 defeat at the World Cup but at the start of this tournament, Ireland would have had genuine aspirations of winning a third successive Six Nations and while they have come up short in that endeavour, it won’t have made them fearful.
Healy explained: “We have a lot of pride in what we do. We wouldn’t want to be losing to anyone in Dublin. It is something that we are trying to build on for the last couple of years to make home a very hard place for people to come to and we don’t want that to change.
“I don’t really go back to draw on wins or losses; take what you want from it and then go forward, staying in the moment of the week (in question). It is a big thing not having the win but it is not going to change your game plan.
“We are very confident in what we do, how we train and how it is all put together. We are just working on the latter stages of our phases and keeping them as strong as possible.”
He’ll be hoping be able to reflect on an Irish victory when he rocks up to the RDS in his civvies on Sunday afternoon to watch his alma mater Belvedere College try and reverse last year’s result in the Leinster Schools Senior Cup final. It’d make a nice double.
