Joe Heyes Admits Rugby Had Become a Burden During 2024 Tour
Joe Heyes still remembers the moment rugby stopped feeling like a life he’d chosen and started feeling like a job he couldn’t escape.
During England’s 2024 tour of New Zealand, the Leicester tighthead found himself adrift — physically sore, mentally drained, and miles away from the matchday squad. With a back spasm restricting his training and confidence at rock bottom, he retreated each evening to his hotel room, losing himself in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag rather than the challenge of facing the All Blacks.
“I had a horrible time. I hated it,” Heyes recalls. “Rugby felt like a chore. It shouldn’t feel like that.”
Leicester had stumbled to eighth in the Aviva Premiership. Heyes had battled through issues with his back, neck and calf. And with Dan Cole and Will Stuart firmly ahead in England’s tighthead pecking order, he felt more like a passenger than a contender.
“I didn’t feel like I deserved to be there,” he says. “When you already think you’re not going to play, four weeks on tour feels like four years.”
A Year Later, Everything Changed
Fast forward 12 months and Heyes is almost unrecognisable.
He featured in every Six Nations match, then started England’s victories over Argentina, Australia and Fiji. And when New Zealand arrived at Twickenham in November, the Leicester prop was back in the thick of it — fronting the haka, dominating Ethan de Groot at scrum time and leaving the field with England leading 25–12.
He had once left New Zealand having “completed 97%” of his videogame.
This time, he left as part of England’s ninth-ever win over the All Blacks.
“That was the feeling I’d chased for so long,” he says. “I’m weirdly grateful for how bad that tour was. It woke me up.”
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How Michael Cheika helped Joe Heyes Back to Confidence
A key turning point came when Michael Cheika arrived at Leicester later that year. During one of their first conversations, Heyes admitted rugby had begun to suffocate him.
Instead of lectures, Cheika offered clarity.
“He told me to simplify everything and take ownership,” Heyes explains. “If I needed to do my gym work alone, that was fine. He said to focus on what I do well, not what I can’t do.”
“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.
Heyes began journaling each night: small reflections, problems, improvements.
The performances followed.
Leicester reached the Premiership final. Heyes rediscovered joy.
“It was a year of good rugby, but also a year of self-exploration,” he says.
Now England’s Most Important Tighthead?
Under Geoff Parling, Leicester look well set again — fourth in the Premiership and preparing for Leinster at home as they chase a fifth straight Champions Cup knockout appearance.
But Heyes’ biggest responsibilities lie elsewhere.
Cole’s retirement had already opened an opportunity.
Stuart’s recent Achilles injury has widened it dramatically.
At 26, Heyes is now England’s leading tighthead option — no debate, no caveat.
He knows better than to assume anything.
“One day you’re the hero, the next you could be a zero,” he says. “I know how it feels to be nowhere near the squad. I don’t want to go back there again.”
It looks unlikely he will.
After a year spent trying to escape rugby, Joe Heyes is now central to England’s future — and the games are coming thick and fast.
Source: BBC Rugby analysis and England Rugby interviews.
