Health-conscious Heaslip looking at big picture

The expanding horizons of Leinster rugby were best exemplified this week by the location to announce the five-year sponsorship deal with Bank of Ireland.

Clondalkin rugby club is about 25 minutes west of the province’s rugby heartland in Dublin 4, but in terms of tradition the distance is much greater. If Leinster’s vision is to become a reality, however, places like this will be just as important a supply line of talent.

Tomorrow, Leinster will play Ulster just up the road in Tallaght Stadium, the home of Shamrock Rovers, before the PRO12 campaign begins the following week. For Leinster captain Jamie Heaslip, this progressive ethos goes beyond just producing the next batch of rugby stars.

“In terms of kids playing sport, I love seeing it,” Heaslip said. “I have a big thing about child obesity and healthy living and for kids who haven’t been given that chance to get out and play. I don’t care if it’s rugby, soccer, GAA, swimming, whatever sport, I love seeing kids out there playing.

“And for Leinster to broaden, to try and push out into areas that maybe didn’t have a dominant presence in rugby, it’s great because it just gives kids the opportunity to play another sport that they like and that they might make some new friends in. At that age that’s what sport is about.

“I played absolutely everything when I was younger, some things I was good at, some things I was absolutely shocking at but you kind of found your feet with something you liked and you ended up sticking with it.”

For the moment, Heaslip is happy to laud the current crop of talent such as back rows Dan Leavy and Dominic Ryan, both of whom featured last week against Northampton when they almost managed to overturn a 26-0 deficit.

“Leinster have a really good competitive environment. There’s always competition in the gym, there’s always competition on the field in all sorts of facets. It pushes the standard up all over the pitch. There always seems to be good competition in the back row in Ireland in general which is great because, again, it just keeps you on your toes knowing you have to play to a certain level.

“It’s good for the squad, it’s good for Leinster going forward. You can’t be relying on one player, you always have to have that line of people coming up through the system, be it really good players or be it leaders as well. You’ve got to earmark leaders coming through the system.”