Cian Healy and Brian O’Driscoll were at a mutual friend’s wedding a few weeks ago, but the topic of the latter closing in on the former’s Ireland appearance record didn’t come up in conversation.
When, as expected, Healy plays a part in Ireland’s game with Argentina on Friday night at the Aviva Stadium he will go level with O’Driscoll as the most-capped Ireland player of all time on 133 games.
And there are two more games in this Autumn Nations Series for the prop to go alone at the top of the standings.
Healy, 37 last month, has said this is probably his last season, and as final laps go, this has already been a record-breaking one.
In September, he overtook Devin Toner as the most-capped Leinster player when he made his 281st appearance for the province.
Of his 132 Ireland caps, 87 were starts for Healy and 45 were off the bench. The Clontarf man doesn’t want to dwell on the numbers.
When he won his 100th cap against France in 2020, he became just the sixth Irish centurion, but it was a stress-filled week.
“I kind of find any of the personal stuff adds more stress to my week than any of the group stuff,” said Healy.
“Like the 100th cap week was probably the worst week of my career for how I felt, but there were loads of nice things said and done.
“Whereas something like a Grand Slam weekend, I can live it and thrive and enjoy it far better. I don’t know if I have, over time, built myself so much into ‘group’ and hating ‘personal’. I don’t know what it is. It’s where my mindset goes with it.”
When it comes to matching O’Driscoll’s record, Healy is not buying into comparisons with the player himself.
“It’s very different between Drico and me,” he stressed.
“I wasn’t ever and will never be the player he was, so it is separated in that immediately. I take pride in the durability and being able to show up.
“That’s something I do hold myself to a bit, not missing training sessions and enjoying the hard work of week in and week out, year in and year out.”
Healy had to overcome career-threatening injuries in his time and could have surpassed O’Driscoll’s record sooner if he also didn’t miss last year’s World Cup because of injury.
What’s been the secret to his durability? Stubbornness? Patience? It’s a combination.
“I do love it and I suppose I am in a place where I can’t picture myself anywhere else and that’s a nice place to be because you can go through the years debating whether you should have done X, Y or Z, but I can look at all of mine and say I was exactly where I wanted to be,” he explained.
There are other numbers Healy is keener to look at.
He cites discipline as the biggest cause of Ireland’s 10-point defeat to the All Blacks. Outside the camp, the lack of impact from the bench has also been highlighted.
Healy says there used to be a subs-specific meeting a few years ago but ‘it was quite a stressful meeting’.
He added: “It was kind of putting pressure on me. So that was just removed. Now we have our walk-through; we have our meetings (and) it’s just all forwards.
“You don’t have to pull rabbits out of hats.
“You’re in the set-up because you have a particular set of skills, your carry, your scrum, your lineout, whatever.
“You have to come in and be comfortable in what you do, what you do well. I think that’s what is leaned on here. You are not coming in to completely change a game.
“Just do what you do well, that’s obviously what they are looking for.”