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Heaslip keeping the faith: 'This team since the last World Cup is probably the best Irish squad ever assembled'
Jamie Heaslip is back. As a young whippersnapper embarking on the meteoric climb that took him to Leinster, Ireland and Lions honours, he was a courteous, bubbly character never short of a colourful turn of phrase. A media darling, so to speak.
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That affability eventually got lost in the translation the longer he stayed established at the top of his sport. Press conferences became a chore, his personality masked by cliches and a stern game face that rarely slipped.
Now, though, it’s like old times. With his playing career over, the defensive mechanisms deployed with the media in his latter years are redundant and the charming, playful old rogue of yesteryear has re-emerged.
Ask him a question these days and you get a considered answer rather than being sent you around the houses as typically became the case when he was Ireland and Leinster captain.
What gives? Life has changed remarkably quickly and the Heaslip now preparing to head to the World Cup to do some work around the game is in a very different place mentally than the guy that was so wrapped up in the 24/7 bubble of being an elite level player.
(Continue reading below…)
It’s easy to discern he is enjoying this brand new chapter, teasing out what next to do with himself at the age of 35 following a stellar rugby career. “It’s different, very, very different,” he enthusiastically told RugbyPass 18 months on from the February 2018 revelation that he was to retire from the back injury sustained in the Aviva Stadium warm-up prior to the Six Nations match versus England 11 months earlier.
“Trying out new things and trying to find what the new passions are, I suppose. It has been a rollercoaster of a year. They say that the three most stressful things you can do in your life are move house, have a child and change career and I managed to do all three in about nine months after retiring. In for a penny in for a pound. Just rip the plaster off and do it.
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“It has been a rollercoaster and lot of learnings, but that is part and parcel of the game unfortunately where you have got to move on, carve out a new pathway and start a new chapter. I’m very, very lucky to look back on rugby, how it helped me in my life and the experiences I had with it, how it set me up going forward and hopefully I have been able to take those learnings. That is what I have been trying to do the last 18 months, take those learnings and parlay them into some new career basically.”
#Allin was one of the most interesting experiences peeling back the layers of how a boyhood dream became a reality. Thanks to @cooper_m & @gillbooks
Thanks to my wife for her support, feedback&honesty, along with my daughter for whom this is dedicated to. For pre-orders in my bio pic.twitter.com/cgrmmcYIBT— jamie heaslip (@jamieheaslip) August 8, 2019
At the moment he is a man of many different hats. Rather than blindly stake everything on one single enterprise to tide him through the initial phase of the rugby afterlife, he has interests in a multiple of different enterprises, a list as long as your arm that will soon include All In, the book set to peel back the layers on how a boyhood dream to play for Ireland became a reality that occurred on 95 occasions.
“When you’re playing rugby you get looked after very well financially and it’s probably the time when you make the most money of your career. You would have to be very lucky to make as much when you finish rugby.
“Knowing that playing is a finite time I have thought about it [retirement] numerous times and I knew I needed to diversify, to look for ideas and good teams essentially where the opportunity might lie to create some longer term value for myself. Things like Coco Fuzion, Kitman Labs, Flender, the bars (The Bridge, Lemon & Duke), Urban Volt, these sort of things, even Lovin’ Dublin, some might pay off and some might not. I have laid the bets now and we will see if they come in or not.”
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I'm back baby!!!! pic.twitter.com/3xP6tL6giX
— jamie heaslip (@jamieheaslip) August 23, 2019
He is no longer the ever-consistent fighting warrior he once was. Rugby took a toll on the body and while he was giddily excited last week when the RFU erroneously published on its website an old Ireland team that listed him to start at No8 against Eddie Jones’ side last Saturday, playing is very much a thing that is firmly past tense.
“I can’t do what I used to do. I think I might lie if I got to 100 kilos, but I can’t lift the weight that I used to be able to lift for various different reasons and once you can’t do that and do the things that you did, it is very hard to keep the weight on.
“Not that you need to. I was never naturally a big No8 but I like to train, so I just change up the training, do different things and it’s been great, really interesting to change up training over the last while and I don’t have to be as strict on all things all the time.”
Highlights: England 57 – 15 Ireland https://t.co/c4bJ7E4kqI via @YouTube
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) August 25, 2019
Strict was the way of his world as an Ireland player under Joe Schmidt, a coach he imagines will be raging this week following last weekend’s hammering at Twickenham. Heaslip watched on in disbelief as England repeatedly raced through the Irish defence and he believes that Carton House, the team’s regular Co Kildare base, will have had a tense atmosphere this week with the countdown on towards the World Cup squad announcement which is only being revealed on deadline day, September 8.
‘If I’m honest, some of the starters last week really didn’t do themselves any favours. It was the first game for many guys, but they are not up to match speed. I always thought me I needed a game and a half, the guts of two games basically to get match fit. No matter how much running you did, I needed those two games to be ready and definitely last week you saw a lot of guys who weren’t match fit.
“Joe will approach it as the first game for a lot of guys, there is that factor, but there were a lot of basic errors that were not Joe or were not up the general form of teams that Joe has coached. That is what he will be disappointed with.
“He will be disappointed in those basic inaccuracies and he will also be very disappointed in the effort of some guys. A lot of guys were just standing around and just looking to carry and not doing the job that needed to be done at the time.
“He will be very disappointed in that effort because that doesn’t take any skill. That just takes a mindset and both him and Andy (Farrell) will be calling it out in a lot of guys and just getting those basic and system errors out of their system and getting real accuracy and job role things nailed down,” explained Heaslip, who knows only too well from experience what it is like to miss out on World Cup selection at the final cut.
He was excluded in 2007 before getting in for 2011 and 2015 and he feels for the 40 players – already down from an initial 45 – who are still vying for selection in the 31 for Japan. “I can tell you what side is better, getting selected is better. It’s harsh. It’s tough. There are only a certain amount of spots on the plane and it must be head-wrecking for the coaches.
“I would say Joe probably has about 25 guys on the plane and he has just got to find the spots for the rest. Let’s say we’re all in a room, we can probably get the squad down to around 35 people without much argument but from about 35 down there is going to be a lot of arguments… there are going to be guys who are bursting their balls to get into that squad, who have done everything they can this summer to be ready and they won’t make it. There is always guys who are upset and don’t make the cut.”
With the humiliating England defeat coming on the back of a disappointing 2019 Six Nations, numerous Ireland fans have written off the chances of seeing their team reach a first ever World Cup semi-final. But Heaslip, who is heading to Japan to do punditry and also work as a Land Rover ambassador during the knockout stages of the tournament, fully expects an Irish party to be in full swing when he arrives in a country he can’t rate highly enough.
“It’s very, very different. The country, in general, is amazing. It is beautiful but it’s one of the few places that is so, so different to the rest of the world. People are going to have a heck of an experience. I will be out there with Land Rover, who are worldwide partners for the World Cup, and I will be also doing some TV work. That will be really interesting and I’m excited.
“My sister-in-law is from Osaka. I have been out to Osaka before and to Hiroshima, but I have never been to Tokyo where I am basing myself from the quarter-finals all the way to the final and I’m optimistic Ireland are going to be there… my message (to Irish fans) is the World Cup hasn’t started yet. These are warm-up games and you’re rotating players.
“The squad hasn’t even been picked for the World Cup and I can’t over-emphasis that it is tough enough when you play PRO14 games as your first two games of the season, but when the majority of them, 80 per cent of the starting national team are on the field (at Twickenham) and it’s their first game of the season, they are blowing out their ass.
“It was going to take them until the second half to get their second wind almost and because England were playing with such pace with the ball, there was nothing more tiring than defending. You have to try and get that context.
“I would say this team since the last World Cup is probably the best Irish squad ever assembled. They have beaten every tier one nation in the world since that last World Cup and have done it consistently. This is a good team that have the best opportunity that Ireland have ever had at the World Cup.”
WATCH: Part one of Operation Jaypan, the excellent two-part RugbyPass documentary on what the fans can expect to experience at the World Cup in Japan
Land Rover is an official worldwide partner of Rugby World Cup 2019. With over 20 years of heritage supporting rugby at all levels, Land Rover is celebrating what makes rugby, rugby. #LandRoverRugby
Comments on RugbyPass
I’m guessing Carl Hayman would have preferred to have stayed in NZ with benefit of hindsight. Up north there is the expectation to play twice as many games with far less ‘player management’ protocols that Paul is now criticising. Less playing through concussions means longer, healthier, careers. Carter used as the eg here by Paul, his sabbatical allowed him to play until age 37. OK its not an exact science but there is far more expectations on players who sign for Top 14 or Engl Prem clubs to get value for the huge salaries. NZR get alot wrong but keeping their best players in NZ rugby is not one of them. SA clubs are virtually devoid of their top players now, no thanks. They cant threaten the big teams in the Champions Cup, the squads have little depth. Cant see Canes/Chiefs struggling. Super has been great this year, fantastic high skill matches. Drua a fantastic addition and Jaguares will add another quality team eventually. Aus teams performing strongly and no doubt will benefit with the incentive of a Lions tour and a home RWC. Let Jordie enjoy his time with Leinster, it will allow the opportunity for another player to emerge at Canes in his absence.
4 Go to commentsLove that man, his way to despise angry little men is so funny ! 😂
4 Go to comments“South African franchises would be powerhouses if we had all our overseas based players back in situ. We would have the same unbeatable aura the Toulouses, Leinsters or Saracens of this world have had over the last decade or so.” Proof that Jake white does not understand the economics of the game in SA. Players earning abroad are not going to simply come back and represent the bulls. But they might if they have a springbok contract.
22 Go to commentsA lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
4 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
6 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
11 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
11 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
4 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
2 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
6 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
22 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
22 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
4 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to comments