Jamie Heaslip's letter to his younger self
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Following his retirement from rugby former Leinster, Ireland and Lions loose forward has written a letter to his younger self where he looks back at a fantastic career that saw him go on two British and Irish Lions tours, play in two Rugby World Cups, win three Heineken Cups, an Amlin Cup and three Celtic League/Pro12 titles with Leinster and was shortlisted for World Rugby Player of the Year in both 2009 and 2016.
The letter starts:
Dear Jamie,
It’s me. Well, it’s 34-year-old you.
You’re reading this in 2004 – at the very beginning – having just been nominated for Junior World Player of the Year.
You don’t win. (Tell Jerome Kaino, “We’ll always have Chicago.”) There’ll be plenty more nominations but our name never gets called.
Don’t worry, I have plenty of medals to show you.
Bad news first… It’s over.
”Time will get us all, but it has us cornered earlier than I had hoped.
Even I started to believe the hype. The 80-minute man. Mr Indestructible. The World Cup in 2019 was the bare minimum for a swansong. I never felt fitter, stronger, at the absolute peak of my powers. Only when the first test against New Zealand kicked off last summer did I accept that a third British and Irish Lions tour had slipped out of reach.
The body has never let us down. Until now. You’ll crack an ankle against Clermont in 2010 and play the next week. A Frenchman named Pascal Pape fractures three vertebrae with a snakey knee in 2015 but you return before the Six Nations title is won at Murrayfield.
This matters because a fair amount is riding on you dislodging the ball from Stuart Hogg’s arms over the try line.
I’ve very little advice for you. Be yourself, everyone else is taken!
Ignore most of what Eddie O’Sullivan says (eventually, everyone starts wearing white boots).
Never be content to follow the herd. Keep coming at rugby from an unusual angle – that’s our secret weapon.
Turn down that first professional contract. Dad is right, “Finish the Engineering degree, and keep playing club rugby with Trinity.”
The “Heaslip is too small” tune plays for a few more years.
Read the full letter on ThePlayersChronicle
