IRELAND BACK ROW Jamie Heaslip yesterday said that he expected the international captaincy to be given back to Brian O’Driscoll.
Heaslip was handed the honour during Ireland’s November Tests against South Africa and Argentina in the absence of O’Driscoll and vice-captains Paul O’Connell and Rory Best.
The Leinster number eight maintains he does not yet know who Declan Kidney will award the honour to, but did admit an assumption that the centre would come straight back into the job he has held since 2003.
“I haven’t had any meetings about it, no.” Said Heaslip. “If Brian was made captain I would have no qualms with it – it is probably what I would expect.”
With injury and age creeping up on O’Connell and O’Driscoll many feel the time is right for the Leinster stalwart to be named as a long-term choice – a groundswell highlighted by TheScore.ie poll yesterday.
Asked to reflect on his two games with the captaincy, Heaslip paused to consider the hectic playing schedule he and Leinster have endured since and expressed a level of sympathy for the international management team who have to wait months before their next taste of action “while we (players) are ‘bang, bang, bang,’ playing loads of games. The hangover from November is gone pretty quickly.”
Awesome
Returning to the issue of captaincy, the 29-year-old summed up the roller coaster emotions by saying:
“It was awesome. It was cool. It was quite humbling leading out your mates, your team-mates, guys who are unbelievable calibre of players, leading them out onto the pitch.”
What was clear from his initial two outings as Ireland skipper was that Heaslip would not be fazed by the extra responsibility placed upon him. A factor he puts down to the quality of players at Ireland’s disposal.
“Brian will probably tell you as well from his experience; there are so many different leaders within the team anyway, that in a way you don’t need one captain as such. Guys like Jonny (Sexton) , or ROG (Ronan O’Gara), or Paddy Jackson at 10, they know exactly what the team has to do.“The same for whoever calls line-outs or plays, everyone knows what they have to do. You have guys who will chat and talk.”
However, Heaslip did quickly add that the Ireland coach is still capable of springing a surprise at this morning’s squad announcement at the Aviva Stadium. Last time out the call came while he was in the midst of some grocery shopping. Heaslip is not superstitious, but says he just might retrace his steps in the hope he is proven wrong.
“You never know with Deccie, I might get another phone-call in Tesco’s. I’ll try and be in a better place… maybe like Donnybrook Fair.”
