20 QUESTIONS
With Matt Healy
1: Pre-match meal?
Home-made pancakes, with all the toppings. A nice sugar kick is always great before game time.
2: Favourite player growing up?
Denis Hickey. He was an incredible player and he played in my position. For some reason he is sometimes forgotten about – maybe because of the amount of outstanding backs that played for Ireland over the past 20 years. Hickey was topclass though and had some incredible performances for Leinster and Ireland.
3: Best away-day roommate and why?
Max Deegan… or Andrew to most people… my most recent room-mate. He is as quiet as a mouse!
4: Who would headline your house party?
The Kings of Leon.
5: First song they would play?
Black Thumbnail. It’s one of my favourite tunes, but I reckon they’d have a good set for a house party.
6: You win the Lotto, first thing you would buy?
A Lamborghini for every squad member. Except for JP Cooney – he’d get a Toyota Yaris.
7: Favourite movie?
along the way.
8: Favourite TV show and why?
Tough call between Peaky
Blinders and Breaking Bad.
Great storylines that keep making you want to watch one more episode. On away trips I enjoy watching a few episodes to pass the time when we are waiting for the game. Can’t wait for the new
Peaky Blinders series!
9: Earliest rugby memory growing up?
Losing to Blackrock College in the first round of the Leinster Senior Cup when I played for Gonzaga College. I remember a feeling of elation and pride as it was such a good game to be involved in, even though we lost. It was a very strange feeling, and probably the only time I’ve felt happy after losing a game.
10: Who is the joker in the dressing room?
JP Cooney, hands down. Always up to devilment!
11: Favourite holiday destination and why?
It has to be Cuba, it’s unlike any holiday I’d ever been on. Stayed with families in different remote areas who cooked our meals etc. A truly unique trip. I hope to go back there sometime in the future.
12: Favourite away ground to play at?
Stade Toulousain. There is an incredible atmosphere and when you go there you know you are taking on world-class opposition. We have great memories of that stadium from beating Toulouse there in the Heineken Cup in 2013.
13: Three people (dead or alive) who you would invite to your dinner party?
Ricky Gervais, Louis Theroux, the English documentary filmmaker and broadcaster; Aziz Ansari, the actor from
Master of None. I think we’d tick all the boxes with that line-up.
14: Most memorable moment in rugby?
Winning the PRO12 final in 2016 was something that will stay in my memory forever. An incredible season that will never be forgotten.
15: Do you have any pre-match superstitions / rituals?
No, I don’t believe in them.
16: Who is the best player you have played alongside and why?
Robbie Henshaw – he came on the scene as a teenager in my first year at Connacht, and now he’s a Lion, need I say more.
17: Who is the best player you have played against and why?
Geo Aplon, so evasive and quick for a such a small man. He is a really important player for Grenoble as we saw in a Challenge Cup quarter-final a few years ago.
18: Can you tell us an interesting fact about yourself?
Myself and my partner are expecting our first child in January.
19: Name three things that are always in your fridge?
Milk, mayonnaise, spinach.
20: Best advice you ever got?
I was advised by many with my home club Lansdowne to explore professional rugby. It was great advice and I haven’t looked back since.