It’s been quite the journey. From something of a tearaway to a sage mentor for much younger pretenders. Jolted by a neck issue which threatened to end his career, and the advent of marriage and fatherhood, came a completely different perspective on his career.
Cian Healy will ride off into the Clontarf sunset as Ireland’s most capped player of all time at the conclusion of this Six Nations and from the pro game altogether at the end of the season. He’ll do so as Ireland’s most capped player of all time and one of its most decorated, but by his own admission he had to change his ways.
In his tribute after Thursday’s confirmation of Healy’s retirement, along with Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony, Leo Cullen made reference to the Leinster prop’s “mad behaviour” in his earlier days.
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“I was a headbanger, I was wild, I loved it,” admits Healy. “Start rugby, start getting paid, start going into town, having good craic, you are still training well, you are still playing well, you don’t see a fault with it.
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“I couldn’t tell when exactly I toned down. Could be somewhere in line with post the neck thing. I ended up just under 130 kilos – not a shocking weight, but I had to go on a weight-loss journey and that probably tidied me up a little bit and got my act together. And then, I dunno, just the natural progression of settling down a bit and figuring out there is a bit more to it.”
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Recovering from those neck problems made him “very thankful” for his life as a professional rugby player, adding: “I managed to squeeze 10 years of enjoying it a bit more and more.”
Being able to share his rugby memories with his wife and children has also ensured playing for Leinster and Ireland has become more “fulfilling” and helped to broaden his approach.
“Earlier on in the career I was very self-centred about how I wanted to just be an aggressive ball of energy that couldn’t be dealt with, and that was across the board.
“Now I spend a lot more time trying to help people understand some things that they might need, or share some bits of advice where it might be needed, but I am not running over to people and burning the ears off them either. I just try and be a very open book so that when lads feel they have a question for me I have an answer for them.”
Once upon a time, his closest team-mates were players with whom he could also enjoy a few beers and some craic, like Jamie Heaslip.
“He’d be my closest still,” says Healy. However, friendships evolve with changing times. “We go out a lot less now. We go on play-dates, that’s the height of that one,” he adds.
Healy admits he won’t miss squad meetings, explaining, “I am more of a doer than a listener”. He has no immediate post-playing career plans other than taking a break for a while.
“I’ve been on a schedule from club rugby from, what, 14. I don’t know what it’s like to not be on a schedule. Do that, go on a decent holiday somewhere in the summer, get into the workshop a bit. Do a bit of crafting, making things, using my hands, using my mind, change it up a little bit.” That’s the plan at least.
Unlike green-fingered Peter O’Mahony and his meticulously maintained garden, Healy confesses his workshop is “a bit of a bomb site”. But wary of becoming “a recluse”, he is mindful of the need to stay fit.
“I could tog out in the Bull Ring next season,” he says, in reference to Castle Avenue. “Clontarf might need someone. I dunno what sort of way my body is going to be. I am going to stay training, I have to stay training, I am missing too many ligaments and tendons not to stay training. So, I’ll be in good shape. It is just whether I decide to feel good instead of banging my body up again.”
But he has enjoyed helping out with Clontarf’s scrum and maul this season, and of coaching says: “I wouldn’t write it off.”
Healy had been thinking about his retirement for a while and, having given it serious thought in December, decided then that this would be his last season, confirming his decision to Leinster just before the Six Nations.
However, despite having five Six Nations winners’ medals already in the cabinet, he’s not done yet.
“That’s what it’s all about, trying to win another one. Just because I’ve decided to retire doesn’t mean I’m starting to think back about things and think about the past. I’m here to do a job and ideally that job is two more wins and lift a trophy.”
