‘I hated rugby’ – how Heyes turned around England career

When Joe Heyes toured New Zealand in July 2024 he was miserable.

Out of contention for England’s matchday squad and suffering with a back spasm, the prop would hole up after training, sailing and killing his way around the 18th Century Caribbean from his hotel room.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag – a console game – was his focus, rather than the All Blacks.

“I had a horrible time. I hated it,” said Heyes of that tour.

“I hated rugby. It had become a bit of a job to me, a bit of a chore, and it shouldn’t be that.”

Leicester had just finished eighth in the Premiership. As well as a glitchy back, Heyes had suffered with neck and calf problems.

With Will Stuart and Dan Cole locked in as first and second choice at three for England, Heyes felt like he was making up the numbers – and probably should not have even been doing that.

“I didn’t feel like I deserved to be on that tour in the first place,” he said.

“That brought a lot of self-doubt within me.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’m not playing against Japan [whom England had beaten en route to New Zealand]; I’m definitely not playing against the All Blacks’.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got four weeks now of not really being involved and not feeling part of the team’.

“That was on me – not down to anybody else – but it was an incredibly challenging time.”

A little more than a year on, Heyes is emphatically part of England’s team. He played in every Six Nations game and started the wins over Argentina, Australia and Fiji.

When the All Blacks came to town this November he started once more, facing the haka, besting Ethan de Groot at the scrum and departing the pitch after 56 minutes with England leading 25-12.

He left New Zealand last year having completed 97% of Assassin’s Creed.

He left Twickenham this year as part of only England’s ninth win over the All Blacks.

Heyes knows which stat he prefers.

“I was thinking, ‘wow, this is the feeling – this is what I’ve wanted for so long’, and it was worth the wait,” he said.

“I’m kind of glad I had a that time down there (in New Zealand) now. I needed a bit of a wake-up call.

“Without it I probably I would have just would have kept on dawdling my way through and hoping something would have happened.”

Michael Cheika helped complete the turnaround.

On Cheika’s return to Leicester in 2024, Heyes confided in the newly appointed coach that professional rugby had become a grind.

Australian Cheika told Heyes to make his career simple and make it his.

If Heyes wanted to do his gym work away from the rest of the team, that was fine. He didn’t have to worry about what he couldn’t do – just focus on his strengths.

“He just simplified things in terms of taking a bit more ownership,” said Heyes of Cheika, who left Leicester after one season and a campaign that ran all the way to the Premiership final.

“It was a really good conversation. We still text sometimes – a little bit about the visualisation of climbing the mountain – how your Everest is the season.

“Every night I’ll write something down in terms of how the day went, or if I have an issue or problem.

“It was a year of some good rugby, but it was also a year of self-exploration.”

With Geoff Parling having taken over at Leicester, this campaign also looks promising.

The Tigers, who are responsible for defending champions Bath’s only Prem defeat, sit fourth in the table.

However, Heyes knows the biggest matches of his season will likely be on the Test stage.

If Cole’s retirement initially opened the door, Stuart’s Achilles injury while playing for Bath on Saturday means Heyes is now arguably the most important player in Steve Borthwick’s squad.

He is the undisputed tighthead top dog ahead of a host of promising young pups.

But 26-year-old Heyes, whose goalkeeping grandfather George and father Darren played second string to players such as Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton during their footballing careers, is keeping the long view.

“It’s a very finite time – anything can happen,” he said. “One day you are a hero, the next day you could be a zero.

“So I’m not taking any of this for granted. I know what it was like not being anywhere near the squad, and I know the pain I felt.

“I don’t want to go back there again.”