JOHN O'SULLIVANhears how the Leinster and Ireland player reacted to his selection for the Lions tour to South Africa this summer
LUKE FITZGERALD and Jamie Heaslip stared at the television screen having quietly slipped away from their Leinster team-mates who were watching the official announcement of the Lions touring party to South Africa in an adjacent room.
Relative solitude would be a more convivial backdrop if the news was disappointing. Fitzgerald and Heaslip knew they had been widely touted to make the travelling squad but that merely served to exacerbate the nerves. Fitzgerald recalled: “Jamie and myself decided it would be better to go it alone in case there was bad news.
“I wasn’t feeling that confident and when Ugo Moyne and Leigh Halfpenny’s names were read out I thought I had missed out because they were two players ostensibly competing for places in the same area of the team. It’s hard to describe the feeling initially when your name is read out; it’s one of elation but you almost need someone else to confirm that it was your name.
“Everyone was delighted for us. You know they’re pulling for you and that support means a great deal. I phoned Mum and Dad and then really tried to avoid people for the rest of the day because my phone was going off non-stop. I did text everyone back the following day.”
Luke’s father Des, a former Ireland international prop of standing, has worn the Lions’ jersey, when selected to face a Rest of the World team (1986) in an IRB Centenary celebration game. Given he wasn’t born when that match took place Fitzgerald’s Lions’ memories are of a more recent vintage, starting with the 1997 tour to South Africa.
“Jeremy Guscott’s drop goal and Scott Gibbs flooring Os du Randt would be two moments that stand out. The other would involve John Bentley, who had just switched from league to union and whose selection for the tour was probably slightly left field but who made a big impact. It just reinforces that it’s possible to make an impact irrespective of whether you have played a lot of or a little rugby. It’s a special moment in anyone’s career, a real privilege.”
Fitzgerald expressed his delight at the inclusion of so many Irish players but singled out his fellow 21-year-old friend Keith Earls: “He’s a good mate but I haven’t managed to catch up with him yet. He thoroughly deserves his selection. It’s some achievement when you consider he wasn’t involved during the Six Nations because of illness and injury.”
By the Wednesday afternoon the Leinster and Ireland wing had parked all thoughts of the Lions and instead refocused on the upcoming Magners League game against Glasgow at the RDS tomorrow night. The destination of the league title is in the hands of Munster at this point but Michael Cheika’s charges will want to greatly improve on what was a poor first-half performance in last week’s defeat to Edinburgh.
The game should have provided an opportunity for several fringe players to put pressure on the coach for inclusion over the next eight days. It didn’t pan out like that. The priority now for Leinster is to produce a high-quality performance in front of their own supporters tomorrow night, using it as a stepping stone to build for the Heineken Cup semi-final at Croke Park.
Fitzgerald returns to the Leinster squad for the Glasgow match. “I know it sounds simplistic but it is important that we concentrate on playing well in this match before we get around to the pretty titanic game (Munster). We can’t win the Munster match this week but we can produce a quality of performance that we can take with us into next week.”
