Jamie Heaslip: Leinster used to run my schedule but now my daughter Harper does

The rugby legend on lockdown life and how his two-year-old daughter Harper is the real boss in his house

Former International rugby player and Focus Ireland ambassador Jamie Heaslip launching The Next Step. Picture Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

Jamie Heaslip has a talking doorbell. Just as he Zooms into our interview, a woman's voice echoes through the computer screen "someone is at the door, someone is at the door." He excuses himself to deal with the anonymous voice, explaining that his daughter Harper (2.5) is somewhere in the house "screaming her head off."

Heaslip says that strangely, his career prepared him for this new world of working from home. "I used to work at Google and a lot of what we did was virtual anyway", he points out. "So this way of working is not new to me. I think the big thing for me since the start of the pandemic is the importance of drawing lines."