Five star Cian Healy: Veteran prop 80 minutes from another milestone

Bernard Jackman remembers his first impression of a young Cian Healy.

He first spotted him playing Leinster Schools Senior Cup rugby for Belvedere College as a hooker in 2005, but within a couple of years the Clontarf man had been converted to prop and was rubbing shoulders – literally – with Jackman in a Leinster jersey.

"He was the strongest young fella, most powerful young fella I'd ever seen at that level," Jackman tells RTÉ Sport.

"He was able to throw around ridiculous weights, and quite quickly he made an impression."

That 'young fella’ is 35 now. Between his 264 games for Leinster and 123 for Ireland, he’s played just shy of 400 games at the top level, and with another year to go on his contract at the province, you can expect him to hit that mark in the next 12 months.

If he comes off the bench at the Aviva Stadium today, the loosehead will make his 105th appearance in the Heineken Champions Cup, just five short of Ronan O’Gara’s record.

This will be his seventh final, a championship record, moving him out ahead of team-mate Johnny Sexton and Toulouse legend Cedric Heymans on the all-time list.

"Did I think he’d last as long as he did? Probably not," added Jackman, who packed down alongside Healy in Leinster’s first Champions Cup final back in 2009.

"He wasn't consumed by rugby at the time. He was very dedicated, but he wasn't consumed by it. He was into DJing and different things. Maybe that's what’s helped him, that he wasn't completely consumed by the game.

"He was a different type of personality. He was really nice, but different. He was into skateboarding and BMX and things like that which I was a bit old for and didn’t know much about."

Healy wasn't the only future Ireland international on his Belvedere College