‘I’m still outranked by my dad’

Jamie Heaslip relishes chance to lead Ireland inspired by the example of his father — a retired Irish Army colonel, writes Julian Bennetts

There are three obvious ways to lead: with words, by example or by strength of personality.

At first glance, with Jamie Heaslip, it’s hard to tell which is his preferred method.

As he sits in a cavernous conference room in the bowels of Twickenham, incongruously dressed as an airline pilot and munching away happily on an apple, he doesn’t seem like a man who has the expectation of a nation on his shoulders.

After all, succeeding Brian O’Driscoll as captain of Ireland is a role that will ensure he is scrutinised for weakness by the watching public, media and, above all, the opposition during this Six Nations campaign.

Yet if Heaslip were any more relaxed he would be horizontal.

Chuckling away to himself, jokingly chiding the press over the front page cover of a tabloid newspaper that has been left lying around, Heaslip seems to be having a whale of a time.

Then, though, he kicks into gear, and you can see the spirit that burns within.

It comes when he talks about what it meant to captain his country in November, and the desolation he felt at being sin-binned in the game against South Africa — a 10-minute spell that cost Ireland the match.

It arrives when he talks about his father, Colonel Richard Heaslip, and his distinguished career in the United Nations and Irish Army.

And it shines through when he talks about the prospect of facing Wales in Cardiff in the first game of the Six Nations in 10 days’ time.

Maybe this ability to switch between his normal, relaxed persona and the intense, driven leader is why Declan Kidney asked him to replace O’Driscoll. Maybe it’s simply because Heaslip is one of the best No 8s in the world.

But when Heaslip talks about leadership and taking Ireland through to the next World Cup and beyond, it is his father who will be his inspiration. And although analogies are far too often drawn between war and sport, lessons in guiding and shaping groups of men do transfer.

“My dad’s quite the moral compass at times,” said Heaslip of a man who escorted John F Kennedy’s coffin at his funeral in 1963.

“He’s a pioneer, quite a religious man. He’s a good sounding board. He would know how to deal with a diverse group of characters, like you do on a rugby team, I suppose.

“One thing dad always said to me was ‘talent is nothing without discipline’.

“I have just read the book Bounce by Matthew Syed [in which the author argues that champions aren’t born, they are made by practise] and I keep hearing my dad in the background talking about how the talent myth has been disproved. I see a lot of similarities to that, in terms of specific training and that you reap what you sow. And I learned a lot from my dad in how to lead guys and set an example. When I got the captaincy he said, ‘I’m a colonel, so I still pull rank on you’.

“He usually wants to talk rugby, and it’s the last thing I want to talk about, but I give him five minutes of rugby talk that I have to put up with. I never asked him too much about his work though. He’s seen some crazy things.

“But if I was going around bragging about things he’d probably clip me around the head, to be honest. Even at 60-odd he still fancies his chances. He never really says [much critical], he knows when I’m disappointed. He knows his son.”

And you get the impression that the son is starting to know himself.

It is Heaslip who mentions his red card in New Zealand in 2010, when he became the first Irishman to be sent-off in an international in 32 years for a crass assault on Richie McCaw. The offence against South Africa was far less serious, coming as it did for the latest in a series of infringements by numerous players, but Heaslip knows any errors will be magnified now.

Most expected Kidney to hand the honour back to O’Driscoll, but now it’s Heaslip’s turn.

“I talked to Brian about it,” he says. “He said he’s 100% behind me. He’s obviously such an influential player and leader in the squad, so it’s great to have his support. To be honest there are so many leaders in the squad, so there will be no shortage of experienced players on the pitch.”

Yet even with those experienced players, Ireland have fallen short since the Grand Slam of 2009, as Heaslip admits. Two defeats in each of the last three years has been a grave disappointment to many. Heaslip has been there for the highs and lows. He will not allow a repeat of the latter.

“Man, I want to win everything,” he says, eyes fixed, jaw set. “When you don’t, it’s not a nice place to be.

“Being in the changing room here at Twickenham at the end of the last Six Nations wasn’t a nice place to be. Nor Wellington after the World Cup quarter-final. Being in the Millennium Stadium two years ago, after the manner in which we lost to Wales, was not a nice place to be.

“But winning the Grand Slam in 2009 gave us a taste of what it is like. And fuck me, it is something else. A couple of us said, whatever you think about winning for a club, it doesn’t come close to doing a Grand Slam. Nothing else I have done comes close.

“There is no reason we can’t do it again. But as Alan Gaffney used to say, you can’t win a Grand Slam in the first week, but you can lose it.

“Our focus is on Wales, and they will want to do well in the jersey as they haven’t for a little while. But we haven’t beaten Wales for a little while, so we will want to correct that, and it will be a hell of a game.

“And us having a good finish against Argentina in November put a spring in everyone’s step — we said we didn’t want a hangover from it.

“There’s a focus on making the Ireland team feel like a club, not a group of players put together wearing the green jersey. It’s all about paying that jersey the respect it deserves and owning it if you get the opportunity to wear it for a day.

“Rob Kearney hasn’t worn it in nine months, the same for Brian. They know all about missing opportunities, and the guys with lesser experience who came in during November bought into that. Now, competition is the best thing to really kick us up another gear.”

Under Heaslip’s leadership, that competition will be intense.