“DO YOU MIND if I do this with a coffee?” asks Jamie Heaslip, who was in fine form. And for good reason.
A couple of hours earlier he’d walked down the steps of Diageo’s HQ in London holding the Guinness Pro 12 trophy, their second consecutive league title.
He’s the captain now. No Leo Cullen, no Brian O’Driscoll. And while the son of a retired Brigadier General enjoyed his five weeks off before preseason he was wise enough to keep things balanced.
“One of the things about having a bit of experience in the game is that you realise that it’s great to enjoy your holidays and all, but the more you enjoy your holidays the harder it’s going to be in preseason.”
“I’ve now come full circle in that I find it hard not to train” said Heaslip. “Rugby – it really consumes everything in terms of what you eat, how you eat, how you sleep, what you drink, how you train. It kind of infiltrates to such a level that on my holidays, if I’m not in the gym and if I’m not doing something fitness-wise in two or three days I start getting really itchy feet. I need to go! So it’s come full circle for me now, which is really nerdy.”
It’s not just about being ready for the coming season; for Heaslip getting a good preseason under the belt is about building for the longer term. He wanted to “start preseason in a little bit better shape, a little bit more muscle mass, and being able to build on that, hold it through the year and then build again the next year”.
Next year of course is a Rugby World Cup year, meaning a shorter preseason and no tour, just Ireland’s warm-up games for the World Cup. “You would get more games this preseason in terms of fitness, conditioning and even skills you want to practice or work on,” said Heaslip.
Heaslip might be the captain now but he says he’s lucky to have a strong leadership group around him, even shorn of two titans like Cullen and O’Driscoll. One of the people in the squad about whom he spoke highly was Gordon D’Arcy.
Darce is the most experienced guy in the squad. He’s gone on two Lions tours, I don’t know how many triple crowns he’s won, he has two Six Nations titles. He has one more trophy than me from Leinster, I think it was the first Celtic League he has that Leinster won. And it’s great to have someone like that around.
D’Arcy’s presence is important for the younger players in the Leinster setup, said Heaslip. “They see what it takes to get to his level, they see what he puts in and the path that they have to take to get to there if they want to reach those lofty heights”.
The arrival of Guinness and Sky on the Pro12 scene is “huge”, said Heaslip, who thought back to his first couple of seasons as a Leinster player when the team was still playing in Donnybrook with just the odd run out at the RDS.
“Guinness are going to bring it to a new level and Sky are really going to elevate it,” said Heaslip. “I really am looking forward to how big this game can get.”
The Sexton question? It had to be asked. Matt O’Connor had earlier described talk of a four-year deal being done and dusted as being “premature”, and Heaslip wouldn’t even go that far. He said “there’s going to be a lot of people clamouring for Jonny – he’s a great player and any club that gets him will be quite lucky.”
Playing for Leinster and now being club captain is special to Heaslip, who said that while he’d never hold it against anyone for leaving he was glad he chose to say no to France and stay in Ireland.
A few years back the English international James Haskell decided to expand his rugby horizons, playing in the Top 14, Japan and the Super 15 before returning to England. Heaslip said he thought that what Haskell did was quite admirable, experiencing completely different cultures and styles of play. He said that a similar curiosity was probably the biggest factor he had to take into account before deciding to stay with his home province.
But it’s like anything in life, I don’t know whether the grass is always greener. Curiosity did kill the cat, so… I don’t know. I’m quite content. I’m very, very happy where I am.
“My club as such is Trinity College in Dublin. I was in school in Newbridge College and before that I played in Naas. All my rugby has been played in Leinster, my province, and like any Irishman we’re quite tribal and provincial and proud of our heritage and where we come from,” said Heaslip.
He spoke glowingly of the quality of facilities at Leinster, of Dublin’s vibrancy and of the strong crowds at the RDS from all twelve counties in the province, not to mention being able to fill the Aviva once or twice a year.
“It’s dream come true stuff,” said Heaslip. “I’d be out playing on a Sunday in the lashing rain in Trinity otherwise, for free.”
