Leonard relishing battle on all fronts
The old ground holds mixed memories for rugby's most capped forward. After England lost to Ireland in the "foot-and-mouth" Six Nations game in October 2001, Leonard, ever-gracious in defeat, sought out old friends under the West Stand.
"I went to see Woody [Keith Wood] and the Claw [Peter Clohessy]. Some of the Irish lads may have given me a bit of a look, but Rala (Paddy O'Reilly), their kit man, came up and gave me a cup of tea. 'There, you go, Jason. Two sugars.' It was just one of those moments that I feel could only happen in Ireland.
"My guts may have been twisted up, but if you can't lose graciously and can't be humble when you win, you shouldn't be playing the game."
Leonard was a front row forward who earned 114 England caps, and few are better placed to talk rugby and scrummaging in particular.
"The basis of front row play will always be the same: line up, bend over and push," Leonard explains. "That's pretty easy, but the technicalities of it have moved on quite considerably.
"I think the guys playing now are getting bigger; they're getting heavier and they're getting stronger. It's turning, even in the front row which, in my time, the front row was a front row. The bigger won, the smaller perished."
He talks effusively about the great props, men like former All Black Olo Brown and Jeff Probyn, whom he played against at club level and with at England level.
"Olo was squat and immensely strong. And all he wanted to do was drive your head through your spine. Every scrum, relentlessly. You had to meet him head on. Every scrum.
"Jeff wasn't the best physical specimen, with his gut and his sloping shoulders, but he was very powerful. And always trying something different. Sometimes he'd go high, then low, then in. You'd have to guess what he was going to do. Those two were the best I've come across.'"
He added: "Today the front row is looking like a place for an athlete even if you're a strong powerful type, you are still an athlete as such. I used to get away without doing a lot of the running. The way the game is evolving, it's for the fitter and faster."
The battle up front has to be the greatest examination of one's manliness and Leonard says the great front row wars still go on.
He says Munster-Sale in the last pool game of the Heineken Cup was "one of the most strikingly physical battles I've ever watched Sheridan and Hayes was one I was glued to.
"It's obviously a lot cleaner from the days I started playing. Touch judges can come in for foul play. Everything is being watched.
"In our day there were at most three or four cameras at a match, whereas today there are close to 30 or 40 cameras. All that has cleaned up rugby's act."
Of the props taking part in this year's Championship finale at Twickenham, Leonard has great admiration for Ireland's Marcus Horan and John Hayes and England's Andrew Sheridan.
"I've always liked Marcus. He is a good, aggressive young player, quite mobile as well and he is coming into his own now. He has been around for a couple of years now and has a lot of international experience behind him."
"John would most probably be the type of prop Andy Sheridan is becoming at the moment. John is a big guy and very powerful, Sheridan might be a couple of inches taller but there wouldn't be much in it size-wise. So John was the prototype really of that modern day prop.
"John is an absolute grafter. He has never let anyone down whether he pulls on the Munster or Ireland shirt. I've got a lot of time for John. I've played against him quite a few times and in my last Six Nations I played against Marcus. They're very competitive, very aggressive and smashing guys off the pitch."
But on Saturday everyone will be looking at a John Hayes versus Andrew Sheridan rematch, two months after Munster's epic win over Sale. Leonard believes the English public is too demanding of Sheridan.
"Everyone is going to look at Andy Sheridan this year. I don't think people are quite fair with him, because he has tremendous potential. He's tremendously strong and talented and I think sometimes people are asking too much of him.
"We keep building him up. You watch one game (Sale v Munster) and he is criticised heavily. Everyone has their off-day or a so-so performance."
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