Rhapsody In Blue

It’s four days since Irish rugby invaded London and a titanic Heineken Cup final that saw Leinster prevail over Ulster in Twickenham. Back on home soil, Jamie Heaslip, a man who wore the blue of the victors, still looks like the cat who got the cream. There’s a broad smile in his blue eyes when I meet him today in the bowels of Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.

“We’re enjoying life as champions again,” says the affable number eight. “The lads enjoyed themselves afterwards. I think it’s always important to celebrate the wins after you’ve put the work in. It’s nine or ten months work and, to come out of it like that, we deserve to celebrate. Plus we had an extra day off to recover from whatever ‘that’ was!’”
The grin grows, but he checks himself. There’s the small matter of the Rabo Direct Pro 12 final on Sunday to think about (a game Leinster would lose to the Ospreys by a single point).
“As quickly as you get ready for a big game,” he nods, “you have to forget about it and move on to the next thing. You can’t really let yourself daydream. For someone in a ‘normal job’, we’ll say, they might have thoughts like, ‘Aah, I’ve a long weekend coming up, I’ll work hard ‘til then and I can plan for that time off’. We don’t have that. We don’t know if we’re getting time off or not. It’s very week by week. The bad thing about it is that 12 months go by in the bloody blink of an eye! It’s so odd – it only feels like yesterday that I was going out to New Zealand for the World Cup. It flies by.”
Regardless, when the 28-year-old calls it quits years from now, while there will be plenty of memories to cherish, Twickenham will surely be up there among them. It marked Leinster’s third Heineken Cup in four years and led many pundits to claim that this particular side might be the best the competition’s ever seen. As one of the players charged with securing possession, one of the first forwards into a tackle, and one of the biggest voices on the pitch to boot, Heaslip has a pivotal role. Was retaining the trophy (only the second team to do so) even sweeter because it was against Irish opposition?
“It probably added a bit of flavour for people off the pitch,” he says. “But in terms of on the pitch? Not really. We approached it like any other game. Very methodically. We were saying during the week that we’d try and be like machines.”
The human element arrives at the final whistle. “At times you catch yourself out,” he nods. “Particularly the lap of honour on Saturday. I remember just standing there. I came a bit away from the lads, and I stood back looking at the whole thing, taking it in. I still remember my first proper season at Leinster, the semi-final Heineken Cup in the old Lansdowne Road. So I thought back to that and just went, ‘Wow!’ We’ve come a long way’. Now I have three medals at home. That’s what counts for me: when I finish rugby I can look back and say ‘see those three medals?!’ Maybe even four. Maybe even five!”

One of Jamie Heaslips’ defining characteristics is that his confidence knows no bounds. In the past, the fair-haired 17-stone specimen has admitted that this quality can be construed as cockiness. Is that a vital commodity at the highest level?
“I love playing rugby but the ‘it’s the taking part that counts’ thing? Pfft. I’m not there to make up numbers. And yes, you also have to be humble. My dad always said to me, ‘Talent is nothing without discipline’ and I think that’s the truest thing you could say. Treat it like a job. But be confident, otherwise you’ll fall flat on your face.”
That translated into quite a claim appearing in the pages of Hot Press last summer, prior to the World Cup. When asked by Anne Sexton what Ireland’s chances were, Jamie seemed to reckon we’d win it. It didn’t quite work out like that, with Wales flattening us in the quarters. Heaslip casts his mind back. “If I remember correctly” he counters, “she asked me could we win the World Cup and I said ‘yes’. But I’d say that anyway, I don’t play to lose!”
When I ask if Leinster’s recent heroics or being a part of Ireland’s Grand Slam side of 2009 has meant more, he shrugs.
“I just like winning!” he exclaims. “I wanna win everything, man. It’s the way I was brought up. Yes, I can be quite laidback off the field. And even on the field at times, but no-one can question my desire or competitiveness. What we’ve done is great, but in terms of weighing up achievements like that? My only thoughts are, ‘Why not another one?’ or, ‘Why did it take us 60-odd years to win another Grand Slam’? Another Heineken Cup, another Pro 12, a first World Cup...”
Right now, a first World Cup seems light years away – all the moreso since the international side’s 42-10 humiliation at the hands of New Zealand in Aukland last weekend. Still, given the current quality of the provinces, it’s fair to say the national side have underachieved. The World Cup exit was followed by an underwhelming Six Nations campaign this year. Why have we faltered since that historic Grand Slam of 2009?
“It’s a bit of a tough one,” he admits. “With Ireland, it’s a tougher environment to get everything clicking straight away. The Six Nations is eight weeks from start to finish. You might have ten days to get it all together. I think we were our own worst enemy at times. At crucial times, we let ourselves down. Be it a missed tackle, a knock on, not giving a pass. Making a silly mistake and getting punished for it. Through the grapevine I heard we got a bit of flack for it. But I don’t think we’re a million miles away from where we want to be or what we want to do. With Leinster we were lucky to go the whole way. Ulster got to the final, Munster reached the quarters.”
There has been the suggestion that the Leinster lads are increasingly committed first and foremost to the blue shirt.
“Yeah, that’s just something that’s thrown out there. I haven’t had anything bad to say about the IRFU or the national team. I think the IRFU look after the players very well. Because we’re essentially contracted out, they have to find the blend, so that the provinces and the national side are happy – and they have been getting that right.”
He hasn’t always coalesced with the party line so easily, however. If something’s on his mind, he’ll let people know.
Last year, both himself and close friend Cian Healy (the tank-like Irish and Leinster prop) got into a war of the tweets with Irish fans who were less than impressed by a shaky victory over Scotland at Murrayfield.
Heaslip also made headlines when he used Twitter to question Irish coach Declan Kidney for dropping Jonathan Sexton and Fergus McFadden. In reality, he was merely advising the pair to take it up with the powers-that-be. No one from the Irish camp complained, but the media were less forgiving. For the most part, he enjoys connecting with the fans, but recognises the pitfalls of social media. “Oh!” he says as if the wind has been blown out of his considerable sails. “I’ve heard some crazy stuff, in terms of people’s thoughts on Twitter. I just don’t get it. Social media is a pretty powerful tool and it’s not going anywhere. I don’t see it as a big deal. It’s ridiculous some of the comments I’ve heard. Hence why I don’t listen to them anymore!”
And Twitter is his one concession to being in the public eye.
“We’re rugby players. We’re nothing else. Yes, there are different trappings that come with it, be they good, bad or indifferent, but you’ve got to be a little bit smart.” So he’s not hitting the reality TV circuit when his rugby days are done? “Oh god no!” he laughs. His disdain for the likes of Dublin Housewives is clear. “I just saw some PR about it and it’s another all-time low. I’m not a fan of any of those type of shows.”
So how does he spend his days? “Tipping away”, for a start, at a part-time masters in business, doing one module at a time. He aslo recently opened an eatery, the meat-biased Bear on South William St. with Dublin restauranteur Joe Macken. Can he cook?
“I’m alright. I can do a couple of things. My speciality is brownies. Not probably the type of brownies Hot Press would like (laughs)! But brownies all the same.”
The rest of the time, you’ll find him plotting ways to get one-up on Cian Healy. When I spoke to Healy over the phone last November, at first he seemed reluctant to chat – it turned out that he had just been on the end of prank call master-minded by Heaslip and FM104’s Strawberry Alarm Clock where a supposed ad man tried to talk him into “high-tackling” Georgia Salpa. Heaslip roars with laughter. “You were only getting one-word answers?! Sorry! Ah, it’s nice to bring a bit of spirit into the whole thing. Myself and him usually team up together on April 1, so we were raging we couldn’t do it this year ‑ we had a game the next day.”
Healy still found time to get revenge.
“He just shrink-wrapped my car,” Heaslip reports. “I came out one day to find my car completely wrapped in cling film. And the funny thing is I’ve cameras on my house so I went back inside, played the video and saw him looking at the camera while he wrapped it. I’ll get him back at some stage. I go out of my way to freak him out because we room with each other with Leinster and Ireland. I look forward to scaring the shit out of him!”
If he doesn’t spend too long reflecting on the past, does Jamie Heaslip dream of the future? There is talk that he’d look comfortable wearing the captain’s armband. “Oh bloody hell, who wouldn’t want to captain their club or their country?,” he says with a touch of exasperation. “Ask any player that. Coming back to my club, I’m lucky that I’ve got Leo [Cullen] there. But I’ve had a couple of chances over the last two years to captain the Leinster side when Leo hasn’t and I absolutely loved it.”

Away from the day job, sport doesn’t occupy too much of his time. “I live in a little bubble,” he says. “I don’t read the media, I don’t listen to it at all. I learnt not to a long time ago, during my first season.“
He rarely watches rugby. Will he be watching the Euros?
“I wouldn’t be a big soccer guy to be honest. But obviously I’m gonna be like the rest of Ireland – glued to the TV!”
He’s friendly with Sean St. Ledger.
“The last time we met up we went to the Drake concert together. Great gig, absolutely great. He did the weirdest thing ever. At the end of it, he literally spent about 15 minutes going around the crowd, shouting out to individual people.”
Why would St. Ledger want to announce himself at a hip hop gig? “Hahaha! No, Drake! Sean’s a good guy.”
It’s been a decade since the footballing Boys in Green last participated in a major tournament. In that time, has the relative success of Irish teams made rugby our favourite sport? Heaslip’s having none of it.
“Not at all... wait ‘til you see. This summer with the Euros? It’s going to go mental! I’ll never forget Houghton chipping yer man in the Italian game in USA ‘94. Phwoar! I know it was years ago, I was probably only about 11, but what a moment! Everyone’s going to be going mad. And then the Olympics. Watching Katie Taylor? That girl! I think she’s amazing. She needs to become the next President or something.”
Try as he might to come across as one for realism and practicalities, Heaslip’s head seems full of dreams like that. Maybe you have to be that way to do well in sport...