Heaslip not fazed by BOD

Under fire Ireland captain Jamie Heaslip has insisted he does not feel inhibited by the presence of predecessor Brian O’Driscoll in his team but welcomes his Leinster team-mate’s leadership role in the side.

Heaslip, who will lead his country for just the sixth time when Ireland play France in the RBS 6 Nations this Saturday (5:30pm), has had his leadership qualities questioned in some quarters after two successive narrow defeats that could have easily gone the other way.

Asked if he was inhibited by O’Driscoll, Heaslip said: “Not at all, no. Before now, I’ve been captain of Leinster while Brian was on the pitch and he’s the exact same now as he was then with me being in the captain’s role. He’s a player of unbelievable experience and there’s a lot of players on the field with great experience and they’re always constantly feeding in. That’s great to have, you can’t see everything on the pitch so it’s great to have the information come from other guys as well.”