His team-mates call him ‘The Shermanator’, but unlike his doppelganger – the hapless anti-hero of the 1990s/2000s ‘American Pie’ film series – stand-off Ben Healy knows how to score, as he demonstrated on his first Test start for Scotland when he kicked 10 of the team’s 25 points on his way to picking-up the player-of-the-match award. The Tipperary born and raised 24-year-old will now make only his second start for his adopted nation tomorrow night after being named at stand-off to face Romania in Lille, and while his chances of nudging Finn Russell out of the way for the following weekend’s win-or-bust showdown against Ireland in Paris is not a realistic ambition at this point, he will be viewing the match as a golden opportunity to push his way into the match-day 23 for next weekend’s showdown with Ireland.
It is a mouth-watering proposition given that selection for that match would mean facing several former Ireland under-20s and Munster team-mates [he will play for Edinburgh next season], who will doubtless be keen to provide a robust welcome to World Cup rugby.
Certainly, Cam Redpath, who will be wearing the No 12 immediately outside Healy against Romania, believes the Irish-convert can at least turn the stand-off selection issue into a conversation – having been impressed by the contribution the playmaker has made to the squad both on and off the pitch since first becoming involved during the Six Nations. “I’m looking forward to playing with him again,” said Redpath. “We came on together for Ben’s debut against Italy in the Six Nations. I came on at 12 and he came on at 10, so we’ve worked together a few times and we also played together against Italy a few weeks ago in the warm-up games. “Ben’s a really good player. I actually played against him a lot in age-grade stuff, so it’ll be great to play with him in a World Cup. “He and Finn are obviously different types of players, but it doesn’t really change too much for me to be honest. They are both going to control the game as 10s, so I just need to adapt outside of them.
