When we heard Brian O'Driscoll's first-hand account of beating the shite out of Austin Healey for trying to wind up Ronan O'Gara on the 2001 Lions Tour, it put a great big smile on our faces.
The former Leicester and England winger/scrum-half is someone who takes permanent residence underneath the skin of rugby fans everywhere, and when O'Driscoll admitted it felt good to give him a box for acting like a gobshite, he lived out the dream of many a fan and player.
Healey then claimed that BOD had exaggerated a bit, but as O'Driscoll had an eye-witness beside him in Keith Wood when he told the story, nobody believed him.
Now, details of another scrap that Healey has tried to twist the truth of has emerged via former teammate Andy Goode. After joining The Rugby Pod for a chat earlier in the week, Goode described Healey's account of a fight they had on the training pitch - which he had discussed in his book - as "pure lies" and told his side of the story:
Outstanding. So many good quotes, we've picked out a few of the highlights:
We finished training, I had the ball and was going to do some kicking practise, Austin is like 'Gimme that ball.'
I'm like 'No, I'm gonna do some kicking.' He's like 'Gimme the fucking ball.' I said 'No no, I've got it, I'm doing some kicking.'
He's like 'If you don't give me the ball, I'm going to come over there and knock you out.'... I was like 'Austin, you're 4'3", fucking weak as piss, you want to get it? Come and get it.
He'd have expected me to go 'Aww yes Austin you're an international, there's the ball' but you're looking around Leon Lloyd and a few of the others are saying 'Goodey, don't give him the ball', so I'm like 'Yeah Austin, fuck you, no-one likes you.'
In his book he wrote that he put me in hospital and I couldn't play the game that weekend, which is absolute horseshit. Everyone knows Austin, great bloke, away from all the bravado and the banter, one-on-one he's a good bloke, stick him in front of a group... What a bellend.
Beautifully said. We're sure that Healey isn't a bad person, but Goode's assesment there is just absolutely spot on.
We'll never get tired of hearing stories about Healey gettting a few smacks, and from the sounds of things there are a few more former pro rugby players out there with stories to tell, so we're looking forward to the next one.
[via The Rugby Pod on Facebook]
