The sun shone brilliantly on Thursday and on such days there's few better places than the west. Matt Healy soaked up the rays by joining a few team-mates in some clay-pigeon shooting. He has another year on his contract with Connacht, where he is the joint leading try scorer this season with Danie Poolman on seven. Let go five years ago by Leinster, things have come late for the 26-year-old Dubliner, but better late than never.
“Some of us like to go clay shooting and it was a glorious day for it,” he said. “I am happy here. It’s hard not to be. I’m living out in Salthill with a couple of the lads and especially on days like this it’s hard to beat.”
It’s his third year with his adopted province. In his first, 2012-13, he was troubled by injuries and was restricted to just three senior appearances, although compensation came by way of being chosen as the Connacht A player of the season, as well as an All-Ireland League winning medal with Lansdowne.
“My weeks were pretty much Monday to Thursday in Galway, and then back for an AIL game on Saturday, but thankfully in the last couple of years I’ve been racking up a few games, so it’s been great.”
There have been another 33 games, and 11 tries in all. Constantly seeking to improve himself, and setting new goals for himself every week, the converted winger’s work ethic has been hailed by Pat Lam, and one Leinster player this week spoke of him as “a damned good player, and a bloody nuisance to play against. He’s always working, always involved and is quick. He’s a player we always have to keep an eye on.”
Connacht and Healy have been on an upward curve for the last two seasons, with the one-time Irish under-18s, 19s and 20s scrumhalf feeling more confident and effective in his adopted surrounds.
“It feels more natural now playing with the lads, and this is our second year under Pat, so it’s understanding a little bit more what to expect. He’s certainly worked a lot with me alongside Andre [Bell] and Dave [Ellis],” says Healy of Connacht’s backs and kicking coach, and skills’ coach.
More comfortable
“They have all brought my game on massively. I’m enjoying it a little more and I’m more comfortable out there and in my position in terms of executing roles, which I was fairly blind to when I first came here, especially at this level.”
Healy is a Gonzaga boy, à la Kevin McLaughlin, Dominic Ryan and his current Connacht teammate John Cooney. “It’s obviously not known for its rugby prowess but there have been a few gems in guys like Kev, Dom and John.” Healy and Cooney, who was a year behind, actually vied for the Gonzaga number nine jersey in his final year.
“We had a couple of really strong coaches in Declan Fassbender, who was also a coach in Lansdowne in my early years there, and Bobby Byrne as a head coach. I’ve a lot to thank them for as well.”
To that can be added Lansdowne, all the more so after Leinster released him at the end of the season following the 2009 IRB Junior World Cup in Japan. “I wasn’t very well prepared for it at all. That shook me a little bit. ‘Do I keep going? Am I good enough? Is it something I want to pursue?’ Those kind of thoughts. I suppose it is easy to switch off from that kind of lifestyle, but to be honest the break probably did me a world of good.”
Crack on with Lansdowne
“My decision then was to crack on with Lansdowne in the AIL and see how that went, while going back to college. I had a few good guys down in Lansdowne like Stephen Rooney and Micky Quinn, who were always pushing me on.”
At the behest of their under-20s coach, Willie Clancy, he was tried at wing, and with another Gonzaga scrumhalf, Brian O’Riordan, holding down the number nine jersey, he was given a few games towards the end of the 2010-11 season on the wing, scored a few tries and his career was re-launched.
After a good 2011-12 season with Lansdowne, the opportunity came to join Connacht. “I got in touch with my agent at the moment, Niall Woods, who swung this with Eric Elwood, a Lansdowne man himself, and I jumped at it.”
As he also completed a degree in sports science and health at DCU (he is currently studying a post-grad diploma in applied sports nutrition), he looks back and says that being let go by Leinster “might have been a blessing in disguise”.
Healy’s emergence, along with Connacht teammates Dave McSharry and Craig Ronaldson, demonstrates that there is talent out there in the Ulster Bank League and that good players shouldn’t give up on their dream too hastily.
“It’s a good platform. It’s lost a bit of coverage in the last five years or so but the talent is certainly there, and it’s great to see that Irish sevens team plucking lads from the AIL. There are so many more like myself and Dave and Craig looking for that opportunity, and the more coverage the AIL gets, the better,” says Healy.
Today’s match against Ulster is the first of four massive fixtures, three of them at home, as Connacht look to hold onto that sixth place in the table and and so qualify for the European Champions Cup.
Hot on our tails
“Another crunch match. They’re fighting for first or second and a home semi-final, we’re fighting for sixth. They’ve got teams hot on their tails and we’ve got Edinburgh and the Scarlets hot on our tails but it’s been a while since we’ve played at the Sportsground [five weeks] and the players have noticed an incredible increase in the support. That atmosphere is very special. Yeah, we can’t wait.”
Connacht have lost only once in the league at the Sportsground and never been this high at this stage of the season, and while Edinburgh are breathing down their necks after last week’s win in the Scarlets, who are also still in touch and perhaps have the easiest run-in, Connacht have also given themselves a wonderful chance.
“We have our eyes set on this sixth position and one of our goals at the start of the season was to beat all the other provinces at least, so we’ve done two and we’ve got Ulster to come,” says Healy in reference to the home wins over both Leinster and Munster, and thus potentially a first hat-trick in the history of the league.
“If you had asked the players where we’d want to be at this stage of the season, we’d have taken top six. It’s kind of an unknown place for Connacht rugby but certainly where we envisage ourselves now and in the future, so it’s where we want to be and these are the games we want to play in.”
