‘No player was more resilient’

BEFORE any of the 229 appearances in a Leinster shirt, before the Heineken Cups, the Lions tours and before the Grand Slams, Girvan Dempsey remembers a fresh-faced Jamie Heaslip buzzing around the Leinster training ground after impressing at schools level.

Dempsey was soon lining out alongside Heaslip at both provincial and international level, and shortly after the No 8 announced his immediate retirement from rugby yesterday, the Leinster backs coach recalled his earliest memories of the Naas native.

‘The first time I got to play with him would have been 2005,’ said Dempsey.

‘He was this young, exuberant, bouncy forward who was laughing and joking with a smile on his face coming out on the training field.

‘He just loved the game but the biggest thing about him was, he was just always there. I got to play with him for four or five seasons, I never remember him missing a session or missing a match.

‘He was just always so robust. He was always available to train and play, and he loved it.

‘I think what helped him was, he has other things in his life. A lot of players get very focused on rugby and their mindset ends up becoming purely about rugby.

‘But he had this ability to switch from his friends and family in his life to his other interests into this. And that’s what gave him energy when it came to play and train.’

That durability gave way with the back injury sustained before last year’s Six Nations clash with England, and Dempsey said it has been difficult to watch his former teammate being forced out of the game.

‘From my understanding, he got very close [to a return]. He made really good progress, his rehab was going in the right direction but unfortunately he hit a speed bump and it set him back a good long way.

‘He would be in here, every morning, very early, before any of the other players, working away on off days, weekends, coming in and working away on physio, doing everything he could to get himself back and he would always pop up to the office, have a chat with Leo, the coaches, he’d have a bit of a joke and a laugh. You could look down at the gym though, and see at times, he was getting frustrated. He wanted to move on and get better, but it wasn’t as quick [as he wanted].’

Leinster head coach Leo Cullen also paid tribute to the long-serving back-row, who played the full 80 minutes in 72 of his 95 Ireland caps, highlighting a particularly special memory from their days as Leinster team-mates.

‘It’s amazing the fact that he’s had to retire now through injury, based off all the players that I’ve come across, he’s probably been the most resilient,’ Cullen said.

‘There’s a moment for me which is quite special, because in my last game in the RDS Jamie was actually the captain in that [2014] Pro12 final against Glasgow, but he let myself and Brian [O’Driscoll] go up to lift the trophy, whereas he should have been the person that did it really.’

Munster head coach Johann van Graan described Heaslip as ‘a world class player, who seemed to always perform, a never-say-die attitude and it seemed that Ireland built their whole plan around him, whether it was lineout contesting or the base of the scrum or their general play.

‘I think he is one of the legends of the game and we wish him well. At some stages, you have got to recognise players and say listen, “well done, that guy was exceptional”. In my opinion he was one of them.’