Cian Healy still waiting for Premier League wages 17 years after his Leinster debut
Leinster star celebrates breaking the record for the total number of Leinster caps and hopes there is a lot more to come
When Cian Healy made his debut for Leinster back in 2007 he was convinced that rugby would be on a par with Premier League soccer a decade later.
The then 19 year-old's assumption was the sport would be awash with money - they had it 'made'.
"I was aware when I was starting out my rugby journey that it was still quite a young professional sport," he says, looking back almost two decades.
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"I had these visions that by year 2018, we would be getting paid like footballers. That’s the only difference. That didn’t happen!"
Healy's 2007 debut came in a three-nation, 11-team competition called the Magners League, and in a ground, Donnybrook, no longer used for professional rugby.
There is a lot that has changed so even if Leinster remains his playground, having made a record 281st appearance for the province at the weekend.
A milestone that, admits the loosehead prop, has been hard to process, hard to fathom at a point in the season where the attention is normally so laser-focussed on a new campaign.
“I don’t really know what to make of it yet, if I’m honest," he said of the fuss and the special treatment afforded him through the week ahead of the Dragons game.
"I tried to push it aside as much as I could during the week. The squad and coaches, and Dev [previous record holder Devin Toner] was on to me. Everyone was on to me.
"They all made a huge effort and made it a special week for me, but the personal and the feelings about it, I just tried to park for my preparation and to try and be in the best head space for a game as I could.
"I do have a great feeling of pride at the moment and I think further on, I’ll delve a bit deeper into what it is and what it actually has taken to get here.”
Healy's Leinster record is unlikely to be broken any time soon and, interestingly, there may be another milestone in the offing; Healy, on 131 Ireland caps, is just two short of Brian O'Driscoll's record of 133.
"I'd love to win another Six Nations, that is something I'd want to be a part of, share those experiences with more people, love to be part of the November Series that looks to be against some serious teams.
"So, yeh, there is an itch I want to scratch there and it's not so much about going past Drico, it's about winning and achieving things with groups of people. That's something that seriously drives me.
"That's not in my hands, what's in my hands is to put a couple of performances together when Leo and the lads give me the opportunity to try and get back into that squad."
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