Few come more heavily seasoned. Jimmy “I’ve always had a mentality of play until I wake up in the morning and don’t feel like going to training” Gopperth will be 40 in June.
Gopperth holds an insufferably bright attitude. Uniquely uplifting and maybe he knows more than most players that he is also privileged. At it every year at senior level since 2003, beating the rugby odds of burnout, injury and plain appetite has become the Kiwi’s lifestyle.
Leicester Tigers is Gopperth’s eighth club. Having traversed the globe from Wellington in New Zealand to Dublin and now England’s east midlands, he’s a throwback, an amateur-era artefact that hasn’t felt the grind so ruinous to body and soul.
When he left Leinster in 2015 at 32-years-old, most players would have been thinking of the last dance. He went on to spend seven years playing with Wasps and then, last year, he moved to Welford Road. So Gopperth is again a listed player on the roster of a Premiership club. Another last dance.
In his Dublin days, the Leinster side was coached by Matt O’Connor after Joe Schmidt departed in 2013. Gopperth arrived from Newcastle Falcons to bolster the outhalf position alongside Ian Madigan, when it was confirmed that Johnny Sexton was leaving to play in France for Racing 92.
A lot of water under that bridge.
“Every team evolves, doesn’t it? It was back a few years ago when I was there,” he says. “Rugby has evolved in those 10 years or so and they [Leinster] have evolved. Definitely.
“But the core, what they’re about, is still there. That shows coming up through the academy and the high schools. They all play together. They’re all mates and they seem to just come through the academy and the team and they’re the guys they played with at high school.
“You can see the way they gel on the field, which is pretty impressive, the experience they have from playing with each other. That will always be Leinster and it’s why they’ve been so successful over the last couple of decades.”
Now seeing Leinster through the prism of the English club highlights some of the unique qualities of Irish rugby, its closeness and the natural ties.
The locale of Leinster makes it cohesive and strong more than inward looking and limited. In less sure hands it could have twisted a different way.
Leinster have avoided that with judicious coaching and imported players. Gopperth, like Isa Nacewa, Brad Thorn, Rocky Elsom, Felipe Contepomi and Stuart Lancaster over the years have all strengthened the DNA.
“Look, I loved it. Absolutely loved my time in Dublin. I have some fond memories, obviously winning the Pro14,” he says.
“And then had the devastating loss in the semi-final of Europe to Toulon. I had some great rugby memories. But more so, just created some great friends from that team.
“I still keep in touch with a lot of them, Mike McCarthy and Brendan Macken over this way. Actually, Brendan Macken ended up being my brother-in-law, which is a long story!”
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Back then, Ross Byrne was another wannabe player coming through the academy, hoping to become the next Leinster outhalf. Gopperth never lined out with him in a competitive match. But he became aware of the youngster kicking balls, doing his drills.
“He was on the field all the time, so you could see the ability he had, his attention to detail and willingness to learn,” says Gopperth.
“So, there are no surprises where he has got to. I think he has been brilliant for them. And brilliant when he’s played for Ireland. I think he has really been leading the team well.
“So yeah, obviously Johnny is Johnny and he’s a big loss to them. But I don’t think they have lost too much because he has been playing really, really well.”
Breaking it down to the match, the 39-year-old won’t sing. He says they have a plan and if that doesn’t work, they have another plan. Coach Richard Wigglesworth and his team have been studying Leinster, looking for small shafts of light to work on and exploit.
It’s not easy, he says. But Leicester feel they are arriving to Dublin with more than they had last May, when the sides met in Welford Road in the quarter-final and Leinster, too easily, went through.
[ Leinster v Leicester: Kick off time, TV channel, team news and moreOpens in new window ]
“It’s a bit of everything, isn’t it,” says Gopperth. “You’ve got to be smart, tactically smart in your game-plan and the way that you try break them down.
“So, Wiggy [Wigglesworth] and the crew have been very good at giving us a plan that we are comfortable with. And that’s the other thing, you’ve got to be comfortable with what you’re doing, so you’re not second-guessing yourself.
“It’s about having a couple of plans because if one plan isn’t working, you’ve got to have the ability to change, and change very, very quickly. I think there are enough senior players in the group with experience to do that.”
It sounds like a piece of advice on wellbeing. A couple of plans. For Gopperth, that hasn’t worked out so badly.
