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Cian Healy addresses his Test future after breaking Ireland record

By PA
Cian Healy of Ireland, waves to the crowd after being presented with his 134th Ireland cap, breaking the Ireland record previously held by former team mate Brian O'Driscoll, after the Autumn Nations Series 2024 match between Ireland and Australia at the Aviva Stadium on November 30, 2024 in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Ireland prop Cian Healy hopes to prolong his record-breaking international career into the 2025 Guinness Six Nations.

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Veteran loosehead Healy became his country’s outright most-capped player on Saturday, surpassing Brian O’Driscoll by coming on for his 134th Test appearance in the 22-19 win over Australia in Dublin.

Ireland begin their Six Nations title defence on Saturday, February 1 at home to England, with interim boss Simon Easterby leading the team during Andy Farrell’s sabbatical with the British and Irish Lions.

“I’m not driven by the number of caps,” said Healy. “It’s not something that pushes me on like winning and success with the group and winning trophies.

“Please God now I can keep playing and don’t get injured or anything like that and Simon might consider me for the Six Nations.”

Match Summary

1
Penalty Goals
4
3
Tries
1
2
Conversions
1
0
Drop Goals
0
140
Carries
104
4
Line Breaks
4
23
Turnovers Lost
16
3
Turnovers Won
8

Healy, who is nicknamed ‘Church’ by team-mates, made his debut against the Wallabies 15 years earlier and has helped Ireland win five Six Nations championships.

Hozier’s Take Me to Church was blasted over the public address system when he replaced Andrew Porter in the 67th minute to a rapturous reception from a capacity crowd, including O’Driscoll.

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Healy was so focused on helping Ireland overturn a 19-15 deficit he did not pick up on the song choice as he went straight into a scrum.

“I got a vibe from the roar all right, it perked me up a little bit,” he said.

“In for a scrum and hanker down on what I had to do there, but it was a nice moment. I enjoyed it.

“(I’m) very happy we got a win on the occasion and I got a few things right when I was on, so that’s pretty pleasing.”

Healy was presented with his milestone cap by Irish Rugby Football Union president Declan Madden at the end of week when team-mates spent time watching highlights of his debut and former Ireland fly-half Ollie Campbell presented commemorative jerseys to the team to mark 150 years of Irish rugby.

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The 37-year-old walked onto the Aviva Stadium pitch ahead of kick-off accompanied by his young sons Beau and Russell before holding back tears during Ireland’s national anthem.

“I enjoyed that with the boys, it was brilliant,” he said.

“They were remarkably well-behaved when they walked out. There was a fear one of them would take a bolt! I enjoyed it, yeah.

“I was singing Amhran na bhFiann and I cracked up a bit, so I just stopped to regather.

“There wasn’t anything particularly on my mind. A lot of emotion in the week. I wasn’t blocking it out or anything like that but I just had to take a moment.”

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N
NB 24 minutes ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

https://www.london.edu/think/how-claudio-ranieri-transformed-leicester-city


He jts knew how to use that deep well of knowledge accumulate over many years of management. A true Moneyball story!

166 Go to comments
f
fl 32 minutes ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

“Two comparable achievements 15 years apart (at different clubs in different leagues) represent failure and not continued success for an elite level coach/manager? Not even a hint of consistency? Just gradual, inevitable decline? And all because he is in his sixth decade?”

Why don’t you try reading what I wrote before you start inventing a load of other random things that I didn’t say. I said “Pep hasn’t gotten better with age”. He hasn’t. I don’t think he’s got much worse, and yeah, he’s been fairly consistent over his career and has had more success than almost any other coach. But he hasn’t gotten better.


“You’ve missed that Mourinho’s early start in football was as a translator for Bobby Robson (ironically a much older manager at the time!).”

I was actually aware of that. I didn’t mention it because it wasn’t relevant to the fact that Mourinho - aged 52 - had more experience than Arteta does at 43. It also isn’t ironic that Bobby Robson was a much older manager at the time - it actually confirms by point that a lot of the top football managers used to be older than they are today.


“You suggested that Les Kiss would not be suited to an international coaching role because of his age profile…that seemed to relate to rugby”

That did relate to rugby. Let me walk you through the thread…


NB suggested that Les Kiss should become Australia head coach in 2027.

I said: “Given the drop off so many top coaches seem to experience as they get older (e.g. Jones, Gatland) Kiss could be a riskier appointment than you’d think!”

NB said: “Drawing a parallel with the NFL and NBA, plenty of coaches stay well into their 70’s”

I said: “Not all sports are going the same way though” then gave the example of football.


The example of football was introduced in order to make the point that the age profile of managers is not the same in every sport. If you had read the thread you were replying to you would know this!

166 Go to comments
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