“What do we want, a fella that sounds brilliant in the media or a dog on the pitch? Give me a dog every day.”
Jamie Heaslip was bloody well pumped for Ireland’s demolition job of Italy.
He snarled before kick-off, he snarled when Ireland won their opening scrum…
… and he snarled all match until all the points – 5 for the table and 63 on the scoreboard – had been accounted for.
CJ Stander got the hat-trick, man of the match awards and most of the available plaudits. Heaslip led his team off, gave RTE a 60-second recap of the action, praised Ireland’s “ticker” and he was done. On to the next one.
For two former Ireland internationals however, Heaslip had just had one of his best games in the green jersey. We saw a very good Jamie Heaslip performance but Donncha O’Callaghan and Kevin McLaughlin saw a lion. A lion that can lead Lions.
“I have to say, at the end of the game, he was my man of the match,” McLaughlin told The Hard Yards.
“I thought he was everywhere. His footwork was good, his defence, he hit a lot of breakdown. It’s the subtleties of his game that some people don’t really recognise. I always find it amusing when Ireland lose and people all seem to turn on Jamie. It seems to happen quite often.
“He is the totem pole around which Joe builds his back row. He plays every game and he is incredibly durable. He plays 80 minutes every single game. His work-rate never lets up and he is one of those guys that you just enjoy working with. If he’s inside you in defence, you know he is going to do his job. If he is cleaning out, after you make a carry, you know it is going to be a good clean-out.
“Having those sort of reliable people on your team is so important in professional rugby. People may say he is a bit mechanical about his work but this is what has got him to where he is today. He is a phenomenal competitor.”
Jamie Heaslip in serious business mode after Ireland thrashed Italy
He comes in for serious praise in The #HardYardshttps://t.co/QlS9dOoX0X pic.twitter.com/e9QpuD0Y7d— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 13, 2017
There were two moments that O’Callaghan lauded about Heaslip and the attitude he brought to Rome. One was when late sub James Ryan shelled a pass to give Italy a turnover and the No.8 shot him a look that would strip paint off a wall.
The other arrived when 14-man Ireland coped excellently with Donncha Ryan’s trip to the sin-bin. He commented:
“What I really loved was when Donnacha went off, Jamie went into that [second row] role and did it perfectly. They were able to do maul drives off him and that’s… you can’t buy that in a squad player. A guy that will step up.
“When others would probably look around, Jamie is the guy that will put his hand up. It was incredible.
“People go on about Lions captaincy and stuff like that. I have a different view on it. I think maybe the horse has bolted on naming a tour captain. You definitely need a leadership group and he’d certainly be top of the pile in an environment like that. He was incredible against Italy and it’s no fluke because he’s incredible every week.”
Hard Yards host Andy McGeady made the point that Heaslip may not be as high up on the list of national affections as ‘heart on his sleeve’ CJ Stander and peppers his post-match interviews with corporate CEO jargon such as ‘processes’ and ‘outcomes’.
“The fans need to know that, some people don’t come across really well in interviews,” said O’Callaghan.
“I’ve never seen a lot of his interviews and maybe that is something players need to be good at but, I’ll be honest with you, when you are togging out with a guy in a dressing room and you are going out into battle, he is first on the team-sheet. He is a guy you want to tog out with.
“It drives me nuts when people speak up about him because you know how much it means to him and how hard he works.”
He added: “Sometimes, what do we want, a fella that sounds brilliant in the media or a dog on the pitch. Give me a dog every day.”
O’Callaghan believes Heaslip, who he spent seven years playing with for Ireland, was “immense” at Stadio Olimpico.
“He was a forwards captain yesterday,” he said. “I loved how he backed his front five and, more so, his front row early in the game by going for scrums rather than kick for points. As a front five forward, you really grow a foot.”
As for his personal performance and the four offloads that stuck – and caused havoc in Azzurri lines – O’Callaghan proclaims:
“Jamie will be the first guy down training on Monday morning. He will do every rep and he looks to get better every day.
“You look at those offloads [against Italy] and they are not by fluke. If you were around the guy for a week, you would see he practices them at the end of each training session.
“He is always, constantly doing extras,” O’Callaghan added. “I used to slag that ‘The Jaim Train don’t stop’ but it’s true. He gets an awful time when things don’t go well but he’s a players’ player and he brought it at key points.”
We’re not sure about ‘The Jaim Train’ but he had one hell of a game in Italy. You can be sure Lions coach Warren Gatland took note.
