It was, says Ben Healy, "incredibly, incredibly tough", an awful experience in the Parisian night when Scotland lost to Ireland at the World Cup.

"Even though I wasn't playing, it was one of the lowest days I've had, to be honest," he said. "Partly because you are in the stand and you're powerless, you can't do anything, but also because a World Cup campaign is such a long build-up with such a long pre-season and, in the space of 80 minutes, you see it unfolding in front of you and you know it's the end. In those dark moments, it just feels like it's almost for nothing. That's how it feels."

He'll be back in the Test arena soon enough - it can't come too quickly for him, you suspect - but he's speaking now as an Edinburgh man. In only five games as the new fly-half, Healy has already made a difference. A team that perfected the art of losing tight games is now winning them.

That's four victories in five at the beginning of this United Rugby Championship season - a five-pointer against the Dragons, a one-pointer versus the Lions, a win by three against Connacht and by eight against the Bulls. This is different and welcome. Healy's reliable boot and cool demeanour have been influential.

It's still a bit strange seeing him in Edinburgh colours. For those who spent days and months admiring his game management and mental strength while debating his place in the Munster and Ireland pecking order, the fact he is now Scottish (the ancestry is on his mum's side) is still sinking in.

It was only a year ago to the month, in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, the citadel of hurling and football in Cork, when he had one of his best days in red. Almost 42,000 people filled the place to the rafters to watch Munster beat a Springbok select on a dirty and unforgettable evening. Healy landed four conversions from four attempts and steered Munster home to a famous win. A hero. One of their own.

In his last game, he helped them win the URC. Some farewell, that. Munster's first trophy in more than a decade and he was on the field to experience it.

Nobody in Munster wanted him to leave, but he had to. He needed game-time and the province couldn't provide enough of it. He wanted Test rugby and that would have been slow in coming had he stayed. He declared for his mother's people. No regrets, despite Paris.

"We're off to a good start," he says of Edinburgh's URC campaign. "It's a good sign of a team when you're winning tight games. I wouldn't say there's any we didn't deserve to win, but most of them have been nip and tuck.

"There's good leaders in the group. I can't speak to last season because I wasn't here, but I've been really impressed by the mental resolve. There's a resilience in the team. I wouldn't have come here if I didn't think we could win every competition we enter."

What people tell you about Healy is that he is at his most effective when a game is at boiling point. And that he seems to revel amid the pressure. Stays calm, makes good decisions, a drop-goal needed to win - he drops a goal. A kick from outside to deny a rival a losing bonus point - invariably, he lands it.

"A lot of that maybe comes from my dad [Fergal, a former Young Munster and Nenagh Ormond player]," Healy reveals. "He was mentally strong as well. But all along the way I had good mentors who were quite tough on me and never let me ease up.

"When I was in school [in 2018, he captained Glenstal Abbey to their first Munster Senior Cup win after a wait of 86 years] Sean Skehan was my coach and, no matter what happened in the team, everything was my fault.

"Lessons like that stick with you. I was taught that it was never OK to tap out, never OK to be second best. Anything below winning wasn't good enough. That's what I've been taught. So, when you're in those last minutes and the heat is on, you have to enjoy it.

"As an out-half, if you don't enjoy it then your team-mates will see right through it straight away. It sounds cliched and cringey, but it is literally why you put in all the hours. You want to have those big moments."

That mindset at 10 is part of what Edinburgh have been lacking. He has already won a URC title but says it feels like a lifetime ago.

"The number one thing is I want to win trophies," Healy adds. "Munster does feel like a million years ago because a lot has happened in the meantime - a long, long pre-season then a World Cup and now we're into round six of the URC. The final does feel like a long time ago."

It's not the final that's been occupying his mind now. It's the final he wants to get to, the title he wants to win.

Early days, but the signs are promising. Edinburgh needed some steel at 10 - and they've found it.