He did have a purple patch around then I guess. It was definitely the apex of his career. He was little more than a street fighter at the end.Dave Cahill wrote:I'm not sure what was funny about Neil Best's selection, he was by some distance the form forward in Ireland in 06-07 and was brilliant against both South Africa and Australia in the Autumn Internationals
Heaslip retiring
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curates_egg
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Re: Heaslip retiring
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brotheroffrank
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Re: Heaslip retiring
Whatever Jamie decides to do next the competition will need to up their game!
Best of luck Jamie and thanks for the memories and inspiration to many young rugby players.....
Best of luck Jamie and thanks for the memories and inspiration to many young rugby players.....
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fourthirtythree
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Re: Heaslip retiring
I find this article interesting
http://www.the42.ie/tommy-martin-sports ... 3-Mar2018/
It tries to address the huge gap between Jamie's achievements and status in the game with his relative lack of profile in the backslapping circle jerk. Jamie, for all the talk of him being all these modern things they despise, was actually much less of a mediawhore than <insertyourfavouriteligindhere> he wore big cans and talked about D? Name a player that came after him who didn't/doesn't?
Perhaps Jamie was always confident of his ability to perform, to achieve, to do what he was paid to do, and didn't need the fallback of fawning coverage?
I'm not complaining about the article by the way, I think it's a decent attempt to address this gap, but it doesn't really answer it. I mean there is a player that pops into my mind that fits into his mould in that he is a super smart player who hits exactly the percentage of rucks that the coaches have put down for him and does the bits and pieces after breakthrough seasons and balances a backrow without being an obvious stand out every match. That other player gets plaudits for minor gestures, or praised when he made an embarrassing fool of himself on national TV, whereas Jamie's every utterance was a target for all those who felt diminished rather than enhanced by his greatness.
I was always proud to know he played for my teams and to support him as best I could.
http://www.the42.ie/tommy-martin-sports ... 3-Mar2018/
It tries to address the huge gap between Jamie's achievements and status in the game with his relative lack of profile in the backslapping circle jerk. Jamie, for all the talk of him being all these modern things they despise, was actually much less of a mediawhore than <insertyourfavouriteligindhere> he wore big cans and talked about D? Name a player that came after him who didn't/doesn't?
Perhaps Jamie was always confident of his ability to perform, to achieve, to do what he was paid to do, and didn't need the fallback of fawning coverage?
I'm not complaining about the article by the way, I think it's a decent attempt to address this gap, but it doesn't really answer it. I mean there is a player that pops into my mind that fits into his mould in that he is a super smart player who hits exactly the percentage of rucks that the coaches have put down for him and does the bits and pieces after breakthrough seasons and balances a backrow without being an obvious stand out every match. That other player gets plaudits for minor gestures, or praised when he made an embarrassing fool of himself on national TV, whereas Jamie's every utterance was a target for all those who felt diminished rather than enhanced by his greatness.
I was always proud to know he played for my teams and to support him as best I could.
Re: Heaslip retiring
Nice post.
Jamie's magic was that he made it look easy and non Leinster fans who weren't as priveleged to see him as often as we did, didn't appreciate just how versatile and adaptable he could be, at such an exceptionally high level too.
There were, of course, the blind that did not want to see.
Jamie's magic was that he made it look easy and non Leinster fans who weren't as priveleged to see him as often as we did, didn't appreciate just how versatile and adaptable he could be, at such an exceptionally high level too.
There were, of course, the blind that did not want to see.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
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Dave Cahill
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Re: Heaslip retiring
Its a good piece alright, but it makes, in my opinion, the same mistake that a lot of people make as regards Jamie's relationship with the media. Jamie certainly has a problem, (again in my opinion, justified) with the PRINT media, but I don't recall him having too many issues with Television, Radio or On-line journalists.fourthirtythree wrote:I find this article interesting
http://www.the42.ie/tommy-martin-sports ... 3-Mar2018/
It tries to address the huge gap between Jamie's achievements and status in the game with his relative lack of profile in the backslapping circle jerk. Jamie, for all the talk of him being all these modern things they despise, was actually much less of a mediawhore than <insertyourfavouriteligindhere> he wore big cans and talked about D? Name a player that came after him who didn't/doesn't?
Perhaps Jamie was always confident of his ability to perform, to achieve, to do what he was paid to do, and didn't need the fallback of fawning coverage?
I'm not complaining about the article by the way, I think it's a decent attempt to address this gap, but it doesn't really answer it. I mean there is a player that pops into my mind that fits into his mould in that he is a super smart player who hits exactly the percentage of rucks that the coaches have put down for him and does the bits and pieces after breakthrough seasons and balances a backrow without being an obvious stand out every match. That other player gets plaudits for minor gestures, or praised when he made an embarrassing fool of himself on national TV, whereas Jamie's every utterance was a target for all those who felt diminished rather than enhanced by his greatness.
I was always proud to know he played for my teams and to support him as best I could.
I have Bumbleflex
Re: Heaslip retiring
The media thing was never anything to do with Jamie. The animus was a factor of how well a Munster counterpart was playing. Other players like Sexton, Malcolm O’Kelly and Kearney have received the same thing. There was even a vocal minority who thought Barry Murphy should be getting matchtime ahead of BOD.
Heaslip never cultivated a ligind persona and his compartmentalised focus was sometimes misunderstood. It’s odd that the media criticisms of him were actually so far from the reality.
He set a standard for preparation and professionalism that has clearly rubbed off on players around him. His legacy will live on for years.
Heaslip never cultivated a ligind persona and his compartmentalised focus was sometimes misunderstood. It’s odd that the media criticisms of him were actually so far from the reality.
He set a standard for preparation and professionalism that has clearly rubbed off on players around him. His legacy will live on for years.
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Dave Cahill
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Re: Heaslip retiring
Great piece by DOC in todays The Times about Heaslip...
Donncha O’Callaghan: Jamie Heaslip schooled me at fitness and became true great
Donncha O’Callaghan
March 3 2018, 12:01am,
The Times
I loved playing with Jamie Heaslip, most of all I loved training with him. His mighty career stats have been trotted out this week along with plenty of references to his “wolverine blood”. I think the tributes to him have been slightly perfunctory in nature.
This you can understand from journalists — Jamie won’t be teaching any media relations classes soon — but his peers need to step it up a little. “Outstanding competitor”, “ferocious will to win” — come on lads, this is Jamie! He’s worthy of more than the standard lines that are thrown out for every half-decent player when they leave the dressing room for the last time.
Jamie was one of the great Irish rugby players — that much is stunningly obvious — though what sets him apart is that he made his team-mates at club and international level better trainers and, as a result, better players too.
He was the tide that lifted all boats.
The bar was at a certain point before Jamie got into the thick of the Irish squad. To my mind we were the fittest and hardest working athletes in team sport. I was in for some land.
Shortly after he joined the Ireland squad, a few of us didn’t have much game time logged so did a ferocious fitness set. Jamie, not well known to me then, was keeping up.
Your ruthless instinct in these situations is to crush the newcomer; show him exactly where the elite standard is and how far below it his best effort is.
At the end of the set I said, “Come on, let’s do another.”
“Yeah, let’s do it,” he said.
We finished the second set, with no sign of Jamie breaking.
“Let’s do another,” I said. David Wallace, one of the best natural athletes I’ve played with, indicated that he’d had enough.
We finished the third set and, put it this way, there was no way I was suggesting we do a fourth. Jamie could have gone again. I walked off thinking, ‘This guy’s fitter than me . . . he’s next level’.
This excited me; here we had a man who would drive standards in training, push everybody higher. That’s exactly what he did.
On the pitch he was incredible, but that didn’t just happen. Every training rep, every lift, every team meeting, this guy was 100 per cent. I revelled in the standards he set.
Sometimes if a player was nursing an injury he’d be on the fringes of the training session or just doing a little bit in the gym. “Don’t worry, we’ll do the heavy lifting for you,” he’d shout across. He was a leader in training — “we’re on the Jamie-train” I’d say, all of us being dragged faster by his incredible engine.
Jamie, the last year apart, was lucky with injuries apparently. Staying injury free has in it a degree of good fortune, but for the most part it’s a result of hours of prehab, physio, massages, cryotherapy, ice baths and every other one per center you can think of. For example, Jamie was using NormaTecs before the rest of us — this is a device that compresses the legs and pushes blood up towards the heart. What the precise benefits are, I’m not sure, but the point is he was always looking for the edge.
He used sleeping pods too, to help his recovery. He invested in himself.
Jamie is confident — far more so than the typical Irish person, in the early days you would be taken aback by his words.
“I’m going to lift the house down today,” he’d say, walking down to do weights. You’d be smirking at this, incredulous at the arrogance. But then he’d go ahead and do exactly what he said he was going to do. Every time.
He absolutely loved training, loved being the best. These past few months of trying to get back to his all-conquering level must have been incredibly frustrating for him. He’s used to leading the field physically and to not have your body respond the way you desperately want it to is tough to take. But, as we know, there’s more to Jamie than rugby. He’ll be OK.
Ireland and Leinster rugby will pay the greater toll for his retirement.
Like a lot of people, I’ve been excited by the emergence of James Ryan in the second row. The first thought I had was that if he wants to become the best player he can be then he needs to be man-marking Jamie Heaslip. The same went for Leinster’s other promising young players. There simply was no better role model.
Never mind the wolverine blood — Jamie is no superhero, just a man who loved every aspect of his work and attacked it with such a relish as to make his colossal on-field success inevitable.
Donncha O’Callaghan: Jamie Heaslip schooled me at fitness and became true great
Donncha O’Callaghan
March 3 2018, 12:01am,
The Times
I loved playing with Jamie Heaslip, most of all I loved training with him. His mighty career stats have been trotted out this week along with plenty of references to his “wolverine blood”. I think the tributes to him have been slightly perfunctory in nature.
This you can understand from journalists — Jamie won’t be teaching any media relations classes soon — but his peers need to step it up a little. “Outstanding competitor”, “ferocious will to win” — come on lads, this is Jamie! He’s worthy of more than the standard lines that are thrown out for every half-decent player when they leave the dressing room for the last time.
Jamie was one of the great Irish rugby players — that much is stunningly obvious — though what sets him apart is that he made his team-mates at club and international level better trainers and, as a result, better players too.
He was the tide that lifted all boats.
The bar was at a certain point before Jamie got into the thick of the Irish squad. To my mind we were the fittest and hardest working athletes in team sport. I was in for some land.
Shortly after he joined the Ireland squad, a few of us didn’t have much game time logged so did a ferocious fitness set. Jamie, not well known to me then, was keeping up.
Your ruthless instinct in these situations is to crush the newcomer; show him exactly where the elite standard is and how far below it his best effort is.
At the end of the set I said, “Come on, let’s do another.”
“Yeah, let’s do it,” he said.
We finished the second set, with no sign of Jamie breaking.
“Let’s do another,” I said. David Wallace, one of the best natural athletes I’ve played with, indicated that he’d had enough.
We finished the third set and, put it this way, there was no way I was suggesting we do a fourth. Jamie could have gone again. I walked off thinking, ‘This guy’s fitter than me . . . he’s next level’.
This excited me; here we had a man who would drive standards in training, push everybody higher. That’s exactly what he did.
On the pitch he was incredible, but that didn’t just happen. Every training rep, every lift, every team meeting, this guy was 100 per cent. I revelled in the standards he set.
Sometimes if a player was nursing an injury he’d be on the fringes of the training session or just doing a little bit in the gym. “Don’t worry, we’ll do the heavy lifting for you,” he’d shout across. He was a leader in training — “we’re on the Jamie-train” I’d say, all of us being dragged faster by his incredible engine.
Jamie, the last year apart, was lucky with injuries apparently. Staying injury free has in it a degree of good fortune, but for the most part it’s a result of hours of prehab, physio, massages, cryotherapy, ice baths and every other one per center you can think of. For example, Jamie was using NormaTecs before the rest of us — this is a device that compresses the legs and pushes blood up towards the heart. What the precise benefits are, I’m not sure, but the point is he was always looking for the edge.
He used sleeping pods too, to help his recovery. He invested in himself.
Jamie is confident — far more so than the typical Irish person, in the early days you would be taken aback by his words.
“I’m going to lift the house down today,” he’d say, walking down to do weights. You’d be smirking at this, incredulous at the arrogance. But then he’d go ahead and do exactly what he said he was going to do. Every time.
He absolutely loved training, loved being the best. These past few months of trying to get back to his all-conquering level must have been incredibly frustrating for him. He’s used to leading the field physically and to not have your body respond the way you desperately want it to is tough to take. But, as we know, there’s more to Jamie than rugby. He’ll be OK.
Ireland and Leinster rugby will pay the greater toll for his retirement.
Like a lot of people, I’ve been excited by the emergence of James Ryan in the second row. The first thought I had was that if he wants to become the best player he can be then he needs to be man-marking Jamie Heaslip. The same went for Leinster’s other promising young players. There simply was no better role model.
Never mind the wolverine blood — Jamie is no superhero, just a man who loved every aspect of his work and attacked it with such a relish as to make his colossal on-field success inevitable.
I have Bumbleflex
Re: Heaslip retiring
DOC is due to retire at the end of the season.
A real Ligind with massive generosity of spirit.
A real Ligind with massive generosity of spirit.
Last edited by Oldschool on March 3rd, 2018, 4:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
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LeRouxIsPHat
- Jamie Heaslip
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Re: Heaslip retiring
Yeah thanks for that DC, great piece.
I have to say this whole media thing with Jamie largely passed me by. I remember the odd incident but it never even occurred to me when he announced his retirement, and neither did the notion of him being under-appreciated. Maybe I'm blinded by his social media presence and my own appreciation for what he brought to the table, but I always thought he was fairly box office.
I have to say this whole media thing with Jamie largely passed me by. I remember the odd incident but it never even occurred to me when he announced his retirement, and neither did the notion of him being under-appreciated. Maybe I'm blinded by his social media presence and my own appreciation for what he brought to the table, but I always thought he was fairly box office.
Re: Heaslip retiring
You never read munsterfans in the last 10 years then? 
Always mystified me how zedbow was "a charachter" while Jamie was catnip to them. Whether it was big headphones or funny trousers or whatever.
Always mystified me how zedbow was "a charachter" while Jamie was catnip to them. Whether it was big headphones or funny trousers or whatever.
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fourthirtythree
- Leo Cullen
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- Location: Eight miles high
Re: Heaslip retiring
A fan site for an opposition team isn't a fair comparison! The contempt he was treated with in Ireland left a really sour taste. The eulogies for his career were the bare minimum, perhaps irelands best no. 8 being a typical praise. DOC done it proper there. Respect to the man for that.
I was tempted to link to a Fall video for repeated "he was not appreciated" but I figure Jamie would not appreciate that!
I was tempted to link to a Fall video for repeated "he was not appreciated" but I figure Jamie would not appreciate that!
Re: Heaslip retiring
Honestly , why should we care what the cretin brigade on munsterfans say ....
The fact that the ‘experts’ ( greatest fans in the world) couldn’t appreciate what Jamie brought to the party , says more about their complete lack of rugby knowledge than anything else
The fact that the ‘experts’ ( greatest fans in the world) couldn’t appreciate what Jamie brought to the party , says more about their complete lack of rugby knowledge than anything else
Re: Heaslip retiring
It's a lot worse than that.alanair wrote:Honestly , why should we care what the cretin brigade on munsterfans say ....
The fact that the ‘experts’ ( greatest fans in the world) couldn’t appreciate what Jamie brought to the party , says more about their complete lack of rugby knowledge than anything else
Otherwise how do you explain all the caps Mick O'Driscoll got or the fact that Miller Wallace and Quinlan never played in the same Irish team or Wallace preferred over D'Arcy or or or...
Not just fabs and not just the coach either.
Or Gatland being relieved of command.
Or the mefia
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
Re: Heaslip retiring
Jamie was one of the great Leinster and Irish players in a long list of great Irish 8s . Was he the best? Who cares he was the best there was while he played by a mile, the only opposition being fantasy rugby pundits.
slit my wrists and its blue blood.
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Raydollard
- Graduate
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Re: Heaslip retiring
Jamie stands out as one of the greatest players I ever saw - one of a handful of greats. And he was brilliant from the getgo throughout the rest of his long career.
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Laighin Break
- Mullet
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Re: Heaslip retiring
Interesting how it's "possibly/one of" Ireland's greatest 8 for Heaslip, but Bowe is "Ireland's greatest-ever right winger"
http://www.the42.ie/tommy-bowe-retireme ... 9-Mar2018/
http://www.the42.ie/tommy-bowe-retireme ... 9-Mar2018/
Re: Heaslip retiring
Ah lads I think all of this ‘nobody appreciates Jamie’ stuff is getting petty now! He has been roundly acclaimed in the last week, even from those who would’ve had issues with him.
Different journalists using slightly different semantics to describe two different players in different positions is hardly a sleight on Heaslip.
Different journalists using slightly different semantics to describe two different players in different positions is hardly a sleight on Heaslip.
Re: Heaslip retiring
Dead right man. Y'all sound like a bunch of miserable munster men/women.wixfjord wrote:Ah lads I think all of this ‘nobody appreciates Jamie’ stuff is getting petty now! He has been roundly acclaimed in the last week, even from those who would’ve had issues with him.
Different journalists using slightly different semantics to describe two different players in different positions is hardly a sleight on Heaslip.
Jamie dosen't give a fukc about that shIte so why sould we.
Celebrate his great career.
You know I'm going to lose,
And gambling's for fools,
But that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live FOREVER!
And gambling's for fools,
But that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live FOREVER!
Re: Heaslip retiring
+1 He's gotten an awful lot of plaudits this last week - deservedly. He was without a doubt the best number 8 Ireland ever had. Every podcast, radio show, newspaper etc had a dedicated piece on it. The whole "they aren't reverent enough" thing is a bit daft.wixfjord wrote:Ah lads I think all of this ‘nobody appreciates Jamie’ stuff is getting petty now! He has been roundly acclaimed in the last week, even from those who would’ve had issues with him.
Different journalists using slightly different semantics to describe two different players in different positions is hardly a sleight on Heaslip.
“As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.”