Heaslip’s focus turns straight to Zebre challenge
By DAIRE WALSH
BEFORE they kick-start their campaign in the newly-formed European Rugby Champions Cup, Leinster will be hoping to return to winning ways this Saturday when they make the trip to Italy for a Pro12 encounter with Zebre.
Speaking at the launch of National Science Week in The Cliff Townhouse, Leinster captain Jamie Heaslip emphasised the need to start producing 80-minute performances.
‘Obviously we want to be playing well going into Europe, and I think we have shown a lot of good patches. I don’t think we’ve shown an 80-minute performance though,’ Heaslip said.
‘Rugby is a really simple game. You have the ball, you run hard and you ruck hard, and you get quick ball.
‘When you’re defending, it swings around and you’re trying to stop them winning that gain-line, and stop them getting quick ball.
‘If we can do those basic things really, really well with the players that we have, I think we can cause teams problems, and that’s what we’re trying to go towards.’
In the days after the defeat to arch-rivals Munster, Heaslip revealed that the coaches and players examined the faults that contributed to their first home defeat in close to 10 months, but insisted that the focus has now shifted to the challenge of Zebre.
‘There were some good aspects [against Munster], not too many in the first half, but there were some in the second half. It’s the team that’s always going to go forward that will eventually get over the try-line, which they did.
‘Some work-ons there, but we parked it as well come Monday. There’s a focus very much on Zebre now and what we can do in terms of learning from those mistakes and getting better. We always try to do that.’