Testing times will stand to Heaslip

Gerry Thornleyon how, whatever today's result, the number eight can't wait for another cut off the Springboks in the green of Ireland at Croke Park

FOR ALL the doom and gloom of a third successive series loss for the Lions – an unwanted blank across all three encounters with each of the Tri Nations – an encouraging thought is the Irish and Welsh players, because of their numbers and age profiles, will be the prime beneficiaries.

All being well, Stephen Ferris, Keith Earls, Tommy Bowe, Rob Kearney, Luke Fitzgerald and Jamie Heaslip will be on board with the Lions to Australia four years hence.

More importantly and pertinently, with next season and the 2011 World Cup in mind, they should all return from here better players. With the mooted Hong Kong rendezvous against South Africa in the first week of the November window looking unlikely, looming large on the horizon is the third and last of the autumnal internationals at Croke Park, against these dastardly Springboks.

Asked what it is he has learnt from going toe to toe with the world champions, Heaslip immediately and defiantly declares: “They’re very beatable. We could have beaten them twice and I think we’re definitely going to give them a run for their money in the November internationals.

“We’ve got a good pack, they like to think they can bully people with their pack, I don’t think they can, and I definitely think our backline can cause them some troubles when it comes to November.

“It’s a shame we’re not playing them twice in November, but I definitely think we can have a good cut off them in Croke Park, especially with the guts of 80,000 mad Irish people screaming at them in that weather.

“They think this (Johannesburg) is cold; wait unto they come over there. I definitely think they’re in for an upset in November when they go on tour.”

Heaslip acknowledges the Boks are particularly strong front-runners, with a litany of good, long-range place-kickers.

Bryan Habana, especially, has caught his eye. “I never realised how quick Habana was, honestly. I knew he was quick but that boy has got some gas. Their whole back row are very good, and (openside flanker Heinrich) Brussow is a terror to get off the ball and these new rules obviously help him a lot.”

But if you can bring them through phases, have a solid defence and play for 80 minutes then, as he says, they are not unbeatable.

“I can’t get ahead of myself, or otherwise I’ll get sledged by the lads, saying I’m playing in that game, but experience is in the bank, and we also have a handy South African forwards coach (Gert Smal) who might know a thing or two about them and we have CJ (van der Linde) with Leinster, who might give us a bit of insider knowledge.

“So I would definitely fancy our chances against them and hopefully we can take a scalp off them come that time.”

The steep learning curve which Heaslip, Fitzgerald, Kearney and Bowe – all Test starters in this series – have undergone in the last two months atones for them all, incredibly when you think of it, missing out on the cut for the Irish World Cup squad less than two years ago.

“Yeah, it is funny. It makes you think a little bit, doesn’t it? I can’t really say much about that, can I?” says Heaslip with a laugh.

He stresses he has no right to expect a place on the Ireland team, but adds: “I’ve never played in the World Cup and I would love the opportunity to do that . . . a world-wide scene . . . but that’s a long, long way away. I’m not really thinking about next season even, it’s all about today’s game and then going on holidays.”

Heaslip is part of one of several new combinations yet to be tried out on this tour, never mind in the previous two Tests. Not that he’s too sure how the new backrow dynamic will change things. “(Number) Sevens vary and Martyn (Williams) will be a different seven from Wally (David Wallace) but I’ve played against him plenty of times so I know what to expect. I haven’t played against Joe (Worsley) as many times but Joe will carry hard and tackle hard, like he always does, and will get around and do some good work for us.”

If the number eight is any barometer of the Lions’ well-being, it was encouraging to see the old, good-humoured Heaslip back with us again. One could never recall him being so low as he was in the aftermath of last Saturday’s defeat. Asked what the motivation was for the Lions this week, Heaslip summed it up succinctly and fittingly. “Pride. Just out and out pride, that’s it.”

Last week’s second Test was especially savage, although perhaps in the Irish season just gone we’d become a tad spoilt by such seismic collisions. Was that over and above anything he had experienced in terms of the ferocity of the collisions? “No, no,” Heaslip responds categorically, then adds with a smile. “There have been some pretty hectic Irish derbies that I’ve played in, if you know what I mean. With regards to intensity, no I don’t think so.”

In any event, Heaslip confesses to feeling surprisingly fresh after the demands of a Grand Slam/Heineken Cup winning campaign. This he will be his 34th game of a ten-month season, in which Heaslip has started all but two of them (he was replaced just once in 19 starts for Leinster).

“I’m actually pretty good. I’ve been lucky, touch wood,” as he taps on the wall behind him, “in that I haven’t picked up any serious bangs and have been able to go the whole season. Back in Leinster they have kept me pretty fresh, because it’s such a long season, and it’s good it’s big game after big game, and that’s the way it’s been pretty much generally for me. So your intensity is up there, you’re up for every single game and I feel fresh going into this week but, y’know, the holidays are going to be enjoyable after such a long season.”

With that in mind, despite many fears to the contrary, Heaslip has no doubt the Lions can replicate the desire and emotional pitch they achieved over the previous two Tests, especially a week ago in Pretoria; all the more so by dipping into the collective as much as individual motivation.

“My feeling on it is that it’s nothing to do with what you feel yourself, or how you want to play yourself, it’s all about the pride of the jersey right now – the Lions, the ethos of it, the many people who have gone before and won the series, those who went before and haven’t won a series. It’s all about not giving these guys (South Africa) a whitewash and going out there and playing with some pride and playing the game we want to play.”

Heaslip is also one of only five players who will start all three Tests, the others being Paul O’Connell, Bowe and the Welsh half-backs.

“I’m lucky enough that I’m getting a run out again this week. Coming over here I didn’t imagine I would start all three Tests and to be up for the last one it’s huge motivation for me personally, and for my family and friends and people close to me, but I have to park all that aside and it’s really all about getting out there and just playing the way we have played.”

“They’re the World Cup champions and they’ve punished us for our mistakes. That’s probably the price you pay for only coming together over a short period of time, every so often everyone maybe falls off the wrong page or whatever. So we just need to reduce the mistakes, and bring them through the phases because when we do bring them through the phases I don’t think they can stay with us.”

Heaslip showed up better in the second Test, when seeming to be more at the centre of the action. Though he’s quick, runs excellent support lines and converts a high ratio of openings into tries or big plays, he is more of a selfless team number eight than an Imanol Harinordoquy or Sergio Parisse type.

“I’m not going to force the game just to get my hands on the ball. You just have to take your opportunities if they come and if not then just work your socks off, be that just tackling all day or rucking all day. Of course I’d like to get the ball in my hands a bit more but it hasn’t happened and so be it.”

Virtually all the Lions speak of returning home after their holidays a better player, although it’s a generalised feeling. Few can say how specifically and Heaslip is no exception. He talks of adapting to a new game plan and therefore having to play differently himself.

“It’s playing international football, and you’re playing with some of the best players in Britain and Ireland. You’ve trained with them for the last six weeks as well so hopefully that’s going to up everything for you as well – your skill base, your knowledge, how quickly you can react and think of things. So hopefully I can bring that back but I might lose a couple of things in my four weeks off,” he admits with a chuckle.

His abiding memories will simply centre around the group of players. “It’s been a great tour. Granted, we’ve lost the series but we have had some great craic, some funny times. Get the DVD. No, it won’t even be on that. It will be on the director’s cut. We laughed together, we cried together kind of thing. Everyone has bought into the group, there have been no big egos, none of that. It’s just been fun. You didn’t really know some of the guys on this tour before and I will have made some friends who hopefully will take me out in Cardiff, Swansea, London and Edinburgh.”

Heaslip confesses he likes having a little banter with opponents, and laughs when looking ahead to renewing these friendships on the pitch. But that can wait.

“All I’m thinking about is playing this game, playing well and then enjoying my time off.”

He will ring every last drop out of his four weeks’ holidays. The Lions depart on Monday evening, he returns to Ireland on Tuesday and then heads off to the USA for the best part of those four weeks, returning three Sundays before starting pre-season with Leinster 24 hours later.

“I plan on doing myself some damage in those four weeks and giving the body a bit of a rest.” Just one last big one to go.