Miss put Healey back on track

13 April 2012

Austin Healey, 'angry and confused' as to where he stood with England three months ago, reported for Six Nations duty last night happy to have tackled his own personal crisis.

The most versatile player in the tournament suddenly found himself surplus to requirements within days of a splat-tering experience at the hands of Australian wing Joe Roff - bad enough to earn top billing on the video compilation of missed tackles for private screening to the England squad.

Given Healey's enlightened contribution to the crushing of Wales, the object lesson in how not to tie a Wallaby down would appear to have had the desired effect.

'I've been subjected to that video nasty on numerous occasions,' he said. 'Every time we watched a video in the camp of poor defensive lapses, that was probably the worst one. It's certainly worthy of a cringe but I've used it as a great source of motivation.

'It's been shown to all the backs, all the squad, and it feels as though it's been shown to all their families as well!

'Every time it has come on, Matt Dawson, Mike Catt and the usual suspects have turned round giggling, pointing fingers and generally trying to wind me up. With a bit of luck, it will soon be wiped off the video.'

Judging by his performance against Wales, Leicester's fly half-cum-scrum half-cum Test wing is in the process of having the last laugh. However, the ferocity of competition, especially on the wing, is such that one missed tackle can seriously affect anyone's international status, as Healey discovered.

The Roff hand-off having led directly to a Wallaby try, the victim departed early to see his substitute, Iain Bal-shaw, rescue England with a chip-'n-chase for Dan Luger's winning try from the last touch of the match.

Against Argentina the following week, Healey was nowhere to be seen, out of the team and, surprisingly given his all-round ability, off the bench.

But he was hurt, hence the angry and confused bit. Once he could take a more detached view back at Leicester, Healey saw it all in a different light.

'It gave me a chance to work out how I was going to get back into the side and not bother with why I'd been left out,' he said.

'I could see that Clive Woodward had made the right decision and I was being naive in thinking I should play in every match. Sometimes you have to accept you're not right for a particular occasion.

'Since missing that tackle on Roff, I haven't missed one anywhere. I don't want to sound as though I'm tempting fate but I've concentrated on my defence in a big way, helped by a few tips from our defence coaches, Phil Larder and Ellery Hanley.

'Where I made the mistake against Roff was going at him too early, which meant I wasn't close enough and off-balance.

'He pushed me to the floor and they scored from it, which is always liable to happen if you miss a tackle out wide where you're a lot more exposed. My technique that day was poor but it's behind me now.'

Healey, restored to the wing in place of the luckless Dan Luger seven minutes into the Cardiff match, will hope to start against Italy at Twickenham on Saturday but expects nothing.

'I was confused after the Australian match but once it was explained to me, I started to understand why,' he said. 'You make a couple of mistakes and it's so competitive that you might not be heard of again!'

As the Azzurri attempt to find a way of tracking England's runners, Healey banishes any notion of his country being content with six tries and 44 points in Cardiff, even if they had never scored as many there before. 'We can get a lot better,' he added. 'We need to tighten up on certain areas.'

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Miss put Healey back on track

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