Jamie Heaslip could not sleep so he took to the streets with his bulldog at 5am last Sunday morning. His induced insomnia came on foot of losing a Guinness Pro12 clash to Munster at the Aviva stadium the previous night, the first time the visitors had won in Dublin over a seven-match sequence.
If the Leinster captain was asked to draw a diagram to illustrate the level of his disappointment it would probably be, etched or shaded, in the deepest, darkest black. In essence the Ireland number eight was asked to articulate how unhappy he was to be unhappy. The short answer is very, but Heaslip put some flesh on the bones of a numbing defeat.
It started in the dressing room in the immediate aftermath, where he sat for quite some time without removing his jersey. If he took it off, he’d have to look at it. If he looked at it, he’d be forced to deal with the inadequacies of some aspects of Leinster’s performance.
He explained: “I don’t like losing full stop. We pride ourselves on being a strong team home and away, [but] especially at home.
“To top it off, losing to Munster I hate for several different reasons. I felt emotionally drained in the changing room. There’s a lot that goes into the jersey, a lot we put into it in terms of the standards we want to be held to. We weren’t up to that standard, which is a reflection on us rather than saying anything about Munster.
“In fairness to Munster, credit where credit is due, they took three really good tries during their purple patch. It made it a very tall mountain for us to climb. Me, with my stubbornness, I still thought we were going to pull it off but it was too little too late.”
Heaslip spoke about having to wear the defeat, the inference being that it irritated like a hair shirt might but he counselled against the notion that the nature of the defeat would be a primary motivating force in eliciting an improved performance against Zebre this weekend. “I think it is foolish to use it too much . . . but you do need a peppering of emotion in it.
“You can’t let it [defeat] stay at you too much. You have to go through a process of assessing it, reviewing it and learning from it . . . and then looking forward.”
Heaslip maintains that the Leinster squad and management have to inoculate themselves against outside opinion as best they can on foot of defeats, citing losing big matches in recent seasons, against Clermont Auvergne, against the Northampton Saints and against Munster this time last season but it didn’t stop the team from bouncing back.
“All the outside noise, has to be noise for us to be honest [as] we have to focus on the here and now, what we are doing and what we can do. As much as we’d love everyone to love us, and carry us down the street, that just doesn’t happen.
“Irish people are quite opinionated and not afraid to let you know
. Which is a good thing because at least you know where you stand.”
He maintains that Leinster are causing teams problems, creating chances when they hang on to the ball; the key is to be more clinical in executing.
Heaslip points out that there’s a good leadership group in place and that everyone down to the Academy players are willing to share the workload.
On Sunday week London Wasps visit the RDS on the opening weekend of the new European Rugby Champions Cup. No Leinster supporter wants to see Heaslip embark on another pre-sunrise stroll come Monday morning.
