| Hosts: France Dates: 8 September to 28 October |
| Coverage: Full commentary of every game across BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and Radio Scotland, plus text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app. |
It was Grant Gilchrist who dropped him in it, the big lock being asked a question about Ben Healy, Scotland’s starting fly-half against Romania, and revealing that his nickname is Sherman, after the wannabe Lothario in the film American Pie. Best not to ask.
“I believe Gilco threw me under the bus,” said Healy, when it came to his turn to talk.
“Keith Earls [his former Munster team-mate] was the one who christened me. I was in the academy about five or six years ago. It kind of died down towards the end [of his days with the province] and then somebody heard about it here and they thought it was the best thing ever. Gilco has been promoting it ever since.”
Everybody knows the outline of Healy’s story, the way Scottish Rugby pursued him for so long once they realised he had Scottish heritage. Finally, they got their man and, at 24, he’s going to be around for a long time yet.
Healy is of farming stock in north Tipperary, a player steeped in Munster rugby. His father, Fergal, played for Young Munster in Limerick and Nenagh Ormond in Tipperary. Having a son playing in the red jersey was a dream come true for the family.
He had a desire to play from a young age. Kicking goals – kicking of all types – became a borderline obsession. Self-driven, they said. Never off the training ground. Hardly ever away from a set of posts.
Worked like a demon so that it all looked natural on gameday. Both feet, no bother. Everybody said he was a born rugby player – and maybe he was – but few people knew how hard he grafted to make the place-kicking, the tactical kicking, the beautiful spirals look so effortless.
As a schoolboy in Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick, he had the presence, the swagger. He was the star and captained the college to Munster Senior Cup glory for the first time.
A while back, the Irish website the42.ie charted the course of Healy’s rise and they did it because they were sure that he was going to the next great Munster fly-half after Ronan O’Gara and the heir-apparent to Johnny Sexton with Ireland.
Sean Skehan, his old coach at Glenstal, talked about Healy’s homesickness in his early days at the boarding school. “He cried every day for three months,” said Skehan.
Skehan watched the boy grow. “He didn’t fall out of the athletic tree. What he had was a work-rate that was better than anything I’ve ever seen and a mindset that is unique. He was always the alpha of his year group from the time he was 12.
“He had this kind of bizarre self-confidence, a kind of Tom Brady-type belief, whereby he just never felt inferior to anyone.”
Healy won an under-20 Grand Slam with Ireland, entered Munster’s world and was marked out as a star. For a period, he had the World Cup-winning Wallaby fly-half Stephen Larkham as a mentor at Thomond Park.
Larkham told him that it was fine to go against the grain, to rip up certain things he would have been told were gospel as a schools player, and go his own way. “I was able to learn pretty quickly that you need to be able to break the rules,” Healy said.
Such is the volume of class players in Ireland, Healy got overtaken. Jack Crowley became the man everybody thought Healy would become.
‘Finn has been great’
The manner of his leaving Munster was impressive, though. Twenty-five minutes off the bench in their away win against the Stormers towards the end of their United Rugby Championship season, 26 minutes against Glasgow in the quarter-final at Scotstoun, 32 minutes against Leinster in the semi-final in Dublin and the last 19 minutes in the final win against the Stormers.
Munster folk didn’t want him to leave, but the prospect of more years on the bench had no appeal. He signed for Edinburgh and declared for Scotland. And now here he is in France, sitting at the top table, talking about a World Cup appearance to come.
“It kind of all happened in a whirlwind,” he says. “The last five or six games for Munster just seemed to roll into one and by the end we’d won [the URC] and it was done. A few weeks off and then you’re into a really intense World Cup camp, which is probably one of the toughest pre-seasons you will ever do.”
Gilchrist says that Healy always has a smile on his face and, as a result, always puts a smile on Gilchrist’s face. You hear that a lot about him. That he’s a bit different in a most endearing way. Quirky. A bit of a space cadet, in the nicest possible sense.
But he’s serious, too. “On the field he’s confident to tell forwards what they should be doing,” says Gregor Townsend. “That’s what you want in a 10. In meetings he’ll contribute as much as Finn [Russell] when we ask the floor what questions they have on our attack. But he’s also someone who doesn’t take himself too seriously off the field. He’s a character. I know the players and him have a lot of fun.”
Healy bats away any talk about forcing his way into the squad to play Ireland in Paris next week. “I’m just focusing on getting out there [against Romania] and trying to have as much fun as possible – and winning. We know what we need from this game. There’s no point looking to next week and not getting what we want on Saturday.”
He says he’s been fortunate in his career to have class fly-halves to learn from. “I had Stephen [Larkham] for years at Munster, then came here and I’ve had Gregor. I’ve taken a bit from multiple sources. Finn’s been great.
“He’s really open, very honest – a great leader within the group. I wouldn’t say there’s a pressure [in replacing him]. It’s more excitement just to get out there and lead this team for Saturday. That’s my job and I’m excited about doing it.”
This will be his fourth cap after two against Italy and one against Georgia. The previous three will be nothing compared to this World Cup game in Lille.
