Johnny Wattersontalks to Leinster's Jamie Heaslip who approaches a Heineken Cup game like a Test match

JAMIE HEASLIP pulls a smile. He's just been asked about Ireland and the recent World Cup draw and he sees a gaping hole that he wants to, straight away, jump into. He doesn't hesitate.

"I'll have to see what Rocky (Elsom) thinks . . . make sure he's not leaving here on two legs," he says slapping his thighs and having landed the first public joke about a match that will take place in three years' time.

Heaslip has now been around camp for long enough, played in enough top-class matches and heard enough people, both enlightened and unenlightened, speak of what a good backrow he has become. He can crack the big one-liner about the Australian international, even relishes the chance to do so. Heaslip is always game, always interested in measuring himself, youthfully sure of his ground but never arrogant.

After a month of international duty and a week's rest from Leinster's Magners League campaign, his re-entry to the provincial scene is a welcome return to a familiar orbit, where he clearly thrives on the savage humour squads have for keeping players well grounded, or, if possible just below ground.

"Yeah, It's always good to go away and come back," he says. "It's like when you go on holidays, you're going to yourself 'yes I'm away'. But by the end of it you are rushing to get back, just to sneak in a day or two early to see who's lurking about the gym.

"They let you away with nothing. I trained in the gym all last week at different times to the rest of the lads, then came in on Monday for an IRFU photo shoot in Irish gear. That was the greatest mistake I ever made. They slated me. Let me know exactly where I was. It's good to get the banter going again."

By his own admission, he doesn't do line calls very well and doesn't look into his opposition that deeply. "I'm never really one for knowledge on other players," he admits. "You'd have to get my mate on the phone."

But his casual confession of occasionally being blissfully ignorant of some of the things around him should not disguise Heaslip's intensity of preparation or readiness to meet Castres' might and guile with some of his own. In his head he has all of the important things stacked up and his performances have been proof of that. He has developed a sort of faux haplessness but the thinking behind coach Michael Cheika's forced rest of himself, Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney was to keep the three in-form operators just that way for what the squad are now calling Test matches. For Heaslip, the visit of Castres is far from him having to drop down a level after New Zealand and Argentina.

"We were talking this week," he explains. "The way we approached the other two Heineken Cup games was with a Test mentality and wanting to come off the pitch feeling it was a Test game, wanting the opposition to come off the pitch feeling like it was an international. That's how the lads will approach it, whether they have or haven't played in international rugby.

"I don't feel it's a step down. If you treat it as a lower standard, you will do lesser things. Then you're letting yourself down."

The team is not yet picked but Heaslip will start. His style of game is a good one for Leinster's game, which is why his interest will focus more on himself and what he must do more than his opposite number and what he may or may not do.

Heaslip is now big enough to try to determine the shape of the conflict rather than follow someone else. That takes confidence. "I like playing an open game," he says. "I like trying to keep the ball going, trying to off-load in the tackle, keep it free flowing and keep the opposition on the back foot."

He is looking for the team standard that took them through their opening games of this tournament against Edinburgh and Wasps. That level is attainable but Leinster have to find it, they have to avoid the occasional clumsiness that has forced them swallow some ugly defeats. Against Bourgoin in 2005, they won by 46 points at home and lost by two the next week. That unpredictability can be deeply deflating.

"I think we play the majority of games to a high standard. Although we've been guilty of dropping the intensity on one or two occasions at the collisions," he says. "Winning the collisions is the key," he adds reflectively.

And Heaslip should know.