JOHANN VAN GRAAN says he was delighted with how Ben Healy steered Munster to victory against Wasps following the out-half’s starring role in the six-try win at Thomond Park today.
Healy was restored to the first XV after Jack Crowley impressed against Castres last week, and the 22-year-old was the outstanding performer as Munster blitzed their visitors in the first half, building up a 24-7 lead before the break.
“We knew that Wasps were still in it (the Champions Cup) if they won the game, so we treated it as a knockout game,” Van Graan said.
“There was no specific message to Ben, just go out and enjoy it and steer the ship. I felt he had a really good game, the first one (assist) for Zeebs, that little chip for Zeebs, his decision making, pretty good defensively. Very happy for Ben, chuffed with his performance.
It was a good performance (from the team). We wanted to make sure we won the game and if the four tries were on offer, we wanted to take them. Obviously, Leicester got five points and Quins won that game in the 83rd minute so the only thing that we could control was getting the five points, but real positives out of tonight’s game.”
The Munster boss also confirmed that Keith Earls should be fit for the start of Ireland’s Six Nations campaign on 5 February. Ireland are due to fly out for a warm weather training camp in Portugal later this week before their round one home game against Wales.
Earls was a late withdrawal from the Munster starting team due to a muscle problem, while Dave Kilcoyne also dropped out of the team due to illness.
“Earlsy just picked up a high leg injury strain in training, I don’t think it’s serious. I don’t want to speculate on that,” Van Graan said.
“Dave was just unwell. I spoke to him earlier this morning, and he said ‘Coach, I’m not good.’ So we pulled him out of the game and decided to go with Jeremy.
“He’ll (Earls) definitely go to Ireland camp. We just said we didn’t want to risk him. He’ll be looked after well in the Irish camp, he just wasn’t good to go for this weekend.”
