Leinster's friends too often faux

HEINEKEN CUP POOL TWO: Gerry Thornleyon ex-Leinster star Denis Hickie's scorn for the province old boys who slate former colleagues

MATT WILLIAMS often observed that Leinster attract a harsher media glare than their provincial rivals. To a degree, it comes with the territory of being a capital city club. Imagine the uproar if they lost 37-11 at the RDS to Williams’s Ulster team?

However, as a recently retired Leinster player himself, Denis Hickie has been moved to highlight what he perceives as the harsher critiques of former Leinster players as compared with ex-players of other provinces.

“People can say what they want. It’s a free country. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I also think Leinster is the same as any other team. It’s not above criticism. It’s above being told it’s not playing well, it’s not above individual players being told they didn’t have a good games. If they made mistakes and those mistakes were pointed out, I think that’s perfectly fair.

“But I think as of late – maybe because I’ve been watching it from the outside – I see something that’s peculiar to Leinster. I don’t see it with any other team, and that is players and people who were formerly involved in the team – be it managers, captains, coaches – who have criticised the team in a way that, to me, is a betrayal of their position.”

Hickie is not exactly putting himself in the front window as a no-holds-barred critic, even if he accepts that once a player enters the punditry game and is being paid for it, then there’s an obligation to call it as they see it. “I just don’t want a career putting the boot into my former team.”

To a degree, Hickie says it’s a generational thing. “Let me put it to you another way. Ten years ago, I wouldn’t dare have played for St Mary’s and then as soon as I hung up my boots the next week been in the papers saying how crap Mary’s were; how terrible they were, that the guys didn’t care and they had no guts, because I would have been in the club 10 years and I would have personally known everyone who would have been affected by it. It just wouldn’t be acceptable. I’d never show my face there again.

“But I suppose these former players turned pundits never had that relationship with Leinster. I don’t suppose they realise that Leinster now is like a club side. In that sense, they’re out of touch.

“And I find it galling, this kind of faux concern of ‘I’m only saying this because I want the best for the team or for Leinster, and I’m duty bound to say this’. That’s absolutely rubbish. There’s plenty of people to point out the negatives.”

With the other provinces, Hickie says, ex-players are more inclined to close ranks. “They accentuate the positives, and they certainly don’t question their character. And this is part of the problem. These critics say that Leinster don’t have the culture of this or that, but they don’t realise that as former players or whatever, they are part of that culture, and the culture at the moment is that former players can criticise the team.

“It’s like anything, if you see former players or coaches or managers slagging the team well, then, it’s open season. They don’t actually see they are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

“It would hilarious if it wasn’t so damaging to the team: I see these people refer to Leinster’s legacy of being chokers. If true, this is a tradition or legacy players have inherited from past generations, including those who are now selling it and perpetuating it.”

Hickie admits that so long as Leinster don’t win the Heineken Cup they will be forever open to criticism. “I don’t remember, as a kid, going to see Leinster winning their first Heineken Cup, and I’m a contributor to that legacy of failure, if that’s what you want to call it, because I was involved in plenty of teams that didn’t win it and I’m happy to say it.

“I don’t remember as a kid, being told of the great folklore of Leinster beating the All Blacks, or beating other touring sides, so if there’s ever going to be a legacy of winning it can only be done by the current team or future teams until Leinster do something. The past teams are in the past.

“And that’s the key point. These critics who slate the team have had their chance and they blew it. Their advice is worth nothing. They had long careers and I’m not questioning their commitment when they played for Leinster, but you had your chance to provide this great legacy and you failed. And I can say that my career was a failure, in those harsh terms, because I didn’t win a Heineken Cup and I got to two semi-finals and quarter-finals. And you only ever have a chance on the pitch. After that your advice is just noise.

“We were under fire a lot and Leinster are not a very fashionable team to support despite where they are from. It’s not fashionable to like Leinster.

“It’s been tough for our supporters and it’s been tough for our team, but one thing I did learn from my time there which I’ll take with me wherever I go, is that in tough times the team closes ranks and gets support from the people who want it to do well. And as long as I’ll be around, I’ll always support Leinster.”