LEINSTER AND IRELAND star Cian Healy says the side will learn its lessons from a poor display in Saturday’s opening Heineken Cup clash against Exeter Chiefs.
Joe Schmidt’s side only won 9-6 against the newcomers, but Healy – recently returned from injury – says any hiccups will be ironed out in time for next weekend’s game against the Llanelli Scarlets in Wales.
“It was good to get back playing. I was annoyed about a few errors but I was happy to be back playing,” he said.
“We were frustrated with not finishing things off and making silly mistakes but we’ve had our meeting and talked about how we’re going to drill that down this week.
“It’s simple stuff (to fix). It’s all just small details we’ll sort out this week.”
Healy says that the Scarlets emphatic 45-20 win over his side in the RaboDirect PRO12, back at the start of September, will provide all the motivation the Irish side needs ahead of the Pool 5 encounter.
“There’s no shortage of motivation after the first game this year, when they got a big old turnover on us.
“That’s something that you want to set right again and take a bit back from them. They’re big in the backline with a strong pack. They’ve every reason to be confident – they’re putting up big scores and running through tackles but it’s on us to come back and stop that.”
When asked if the side was worrying after going through some patchy form in the first couple of months of the season, Healy was defiant.
“Hopefully not, no. It’s all within ourselves to come together and figure out what the reason is (for last weekend) and pull it all together and bring out those big performances.”
The 25-year-old prop strongly denied that his side would fold under the pressure of defending its Heineken Cup title.
“Pressure makes diamonds!” he insisted.
“We’re pretty strong away so it’s going to be how we focus in training, being fresh and ready to go and stuff like that, and really having that edge to go out and play ball.
“We have that great support too so everything’s in our favour and how we want it to be.”
