Jamie Heaslip: ‘It’s a dangerous combination, a really good head coach and great players’

Jamie Heaslip doesn't place much store in the abstract notion that the momentum of winning two and potentially three November tests will provide impetus when it comes to next season's Six Nations Championship and World Cup.

He argues, sensibly, that there are too many matches to be played whether sporting a green jersey or a colour of another hue. He's got a more linear focus and that begins and ends with Australia, who visit the Aviva stadium on Saturday, where they'll meet an Ireland team looking to supplement victories over South Africa and Georgia with a third success.

Every team looks back to analyse but referencing the Wallabies victory in Dublin 12 months ago is diluted by slightly different playing personnel and a new coach in Michael Cheika. Heaslip did try and cajole Leinster new boy Kane Douglas into revealing some of the Waratahs/Aussie patterns but didn't make much headway. It's a slow burn.

It couldn’t be repeated

One person with whom the Ireland number eight is fully conversant with is Cheika, head coach at Leinster for five years, and the man who helped to shape Heaslip the player. If the team mirrors a coach then the current Aussies might require an X-rating.

Heaslip laughs: “What Cheiks says in the changing room and in the shed in terms of training…..I don’t think that stuff can be repeated at times. He is a very passionate man and would wear his heart on his sleeve. That’s good because you definitely know what he is thinking and feeling.

“In terms of organisation and thinking about the game he’s a very smart man who has the ability to come up with a couple of really good line breaking moves. I know (because) I have been on the receiving end of them.

“With Cheiks I have fond memories. He is a unique character. It was great when I turned pro that my head coach was a backrow player. I got some extra attention off Cheiks; it was always good. I’m sure he is going to give them (the Aussies) a unique insight into us, to a lot of different players, that they probably wouldn’t have had before.

“He’ll give them that insight but I think he’ll be quite focused on getting Australia right and really getting them into a good place. It’s a dangerous combination, a really good head coach and great players.”

The time to man up

There’s already been a fair bit of chitchat this week about how Ireland negated the South African maul, while imposing their own successfully and what steps the Aussies are going to take to prevail in that particular battle of wits.

Heaslip argues that Ireland’s success in that facet of the game is not a recent phenomenon. “It’s something you can plan out to a certain degree. Like all good set pieces when you drill them and execute them (effectively), sometimes they are very hard to stop.

“Being on the other side of it, defending off well executed moves or mauls, it is tough work getting in there and breaking it up. South Africa scored one against us two weeks ago. All teams pride themselves on that as a pack. You want that chance, you want them to kick to the corner and (say) ‘let’s go.’ It’s kind of a man-up time is the best way to describe it.”

At this stage of the week the lion’s share of the homework has been done, perfected or as much as the slightly sterile environment of the training ground allows. It’s about fine tuning and as Heaslip concedes, “focusing on what we think will work against their type of defence. That’s pretty much it.”