Rugby World Cup: Gerry Thornley finds Keith Gleeson hugely relieved to be named in the Ireland starting XV and looking forward with particular relish to tomorrow's game against Australia.

Keith Gleeson may not always be the most expressive of people, but he doesn't hide his feelings too well either. Even with his head buried in a book last week, he looked like a grumpy bear with a sore head. Now he's a changed man again, smiling and full of chat.

Playing in the 2003 World Cup was his reason for returning over two years ago to the land of his parents and his birth. Travelling and not playing was not part of his personal agenda. An utter professional, and very single-minded, at 27, he lives to play rugby.

So, as he candidly admitted following his reinstatement to the team after being omitted from the 22-man squad to play Argentina, when Victor Costello came up to him after training yesterday his knowing Leinster team-mate remarked: "It's good to see the toys are back in the cot." Yet his emotions on hearing himself being named in the team at yesterday morning's squad meeting were mostly of relief.

"Obviously it was very disappointing to miss the Argentina game. It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride in the last week so certainly it's a big relief to be back in the side. You're in the side one week and you're out the next - and not for playing badly. It's one thing when you haven't been playing well to be dropped; it's another thing when it's a tactical decision made by the coaches."

The deferral by 48 hours of the team announcement added to his anguish. "Eddie really made me work when he didn't announce the team on Tuesday," he smiled. "I had two more days to wait. So certainly I'm a lot more relaxed now."

Gleeson admitted his omission against Argentina had come as a shock to him, though press coverage back home in Ireland had given him an inkling it might happen. "But, still, a very disappointing week. It was one game I would dearly have loved to have played in. I didn't, but I realised I had a fairly good chance of being involved this weekend. So it was a case of not losing the head, and make sure the wheels stayed well and truly oiled."

To not play him against the country he was reared in, mindful of Australia's quicker ruck ball and the presence of two "opensides", George Smith and Phil Waugh, in the opposing back row, would have been unthinkable. And if ever a player will be up for a game, it's Gleeson against Australia.

This will be his third time playing against the Wallabies, but every time he seems obliged to tell his life story over and over again. His parents moving here when he was seven. Coming through the Australian under-19 and under-21 ranks as well as New South Wales, though his failure to break into the Waratahs' first-team set-up saw him return to Ireland and link up with his one-time NSW coach Matt Williams at Leinster. All to fuel the ambition of playing test rugby. Otherwise, his mission would not have been accomplished.

Yet still there's an ongoing need to earn respect, all the more so here.

"You always want respect when you come off the field, but I think there's a slightly different context to this game. We're playing one of the three best teams in the world, they're still champions of the last World Cup, so it's a big game for us. We want to be able to walk off with our heads held high.

"We lost somewhat badly in June," he admitted, in reference to Ireland's 45-16 defeat in Perth, "lost our way, and the game really ran away from us. So this time we want to come off the field with our heads held high."

Ironically, his brother will not be in attendance tomorrow, as he's best man at a wedding in Ireland, though both his parents will be, having seen him play test rugby live only in New Zealand last year, Perth last June, and against Romania in Ireland's opening match here. "It'll be nice to have them on the sideline," he said.

Gleeson often talks about his conflicting status, an Irishman in Australia or an Australian in Ireland, but he's happy to be who and what he is. "I'd like to think I've the best of both countries in me, but my team-mates might say otherwise. I'd be a very fickle person, I think, if I said I was 100 per cent Irish. I am who I am - that is I was born in Dublin, lived there until I was seven and moved to Australia. I don't think I'll ever figure out which part of me is more of which, and to be honest that doesn't really bother me. I'm quite happy knowing that I'm a mixture of both cultures."

He hopes to have a "midi beer" with former Northern Suburbs team-mates Al Baxter and Ben Darwin after the game. During his four years at New South Wales, his main rival as up-and-coming openside was Phil Waugh, the latter winning out. Waugh blankly refused to mention Gleeson by name at a bland press conference on Wednesday, but Gleeson is less reticent.

"To be honest I haven't played (against) him since I left. He is a very good player, so I'll be looking forward to it, it'll be a great challenge." Mates, or rivals, or both? "Emmm, I think there was a mutual respect, but I don't think we really hung out together," he smiled.

Heh, Keith Gleeson is smiling again.