Fitzgerald happy to be jockeying for position

SIX NATIONS/ENGLAND V IRELAND:FOR A SHORT time last week, we seized on an image that was fitting to the mood of the moment if not the fact. Brian O'Driscoll, his arms around the shoulders of two of Ireland's medical staff, was limping out of his Six Nations Championship with a hamstring injury. On the touchline Luke Fitzgerald, tight on the bridle, was unzipping his tracksuit in anticipation of entering his first Six Nations match.

As the Blackrock players passed in opposite directions, one an iconic figure, the other promising to be, it was hard to escape the idea of the passage of time, the concept of change.

If you buy into the theory that modification and adjustment are empowering, Fitzgerald's arrival alongside Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Eoin Reddan and Jamie Heaslip can only be seen as a positive against a backdrop of general Irish disappointment.

The captain's painful disappearance; Gordon D'Arcy's fractured arm; the epic pressure on the coach; a team imploding and their championship hopes crumbling - it all demanded some sort of reflection and some kind of answer. Then from the wings, the young, eager Fitzgerald came bursting on to the blighted landscape.

Callow and new to the scene, Fitzgerald is reluctant to shout loudly. There is no tradition of the brash or the egotistical in Irish rugby. In Stradbrook they see him as an outside centre and, secondly, a fullback. He is not a winger but like Kearney would cheerfully tolerate an apprenticeship on the flanks. He knows too that as long as O'Driscoll wants it he also has the 13 shirt.

"Look, I'm delighted to be part of any Irish squad," he says. "Obviously it would be great to be on the pitch but there is still the opportunity, even if I'm on the bench, that I might get on.

"I think I'm most comfortable at fullback and I really enjoy my rugby there. But there are so many good guys vying for the position that it's tough . . . At the same time, I'm loving being part of the whole thing. Any position Eddie (O'Sullivan) decides to pick me in, I'd be delighted to give my all."

Earnest, faithful words from the former GAA player; he joins a band of kindred spirits - the formative years of Bowe, Kearney and Geordan Murphy were GAA. But with Des as his father, there was no doubt the oval ball would dominate Fitzgerald's horizon.

A former Ireland prop with 34 caps, Des is a calming and analytical voice in young Luke's corner. He played his final game against England at tighthead in March 1991 and his last in Twickenham in January 1990 at loosehead.

He knows about adapting to team needs.

"I've discussed my 10 minutes on the pitch with him," says Luke. "I really value his opinion, and we grew up talking about it (rugby). That's literally all we talk about when he's not giving out to me about my exams.

"I have a lot of respect for his opinions, and we do discuss things. I think he likes to think of himself as someone who would have quite a broad understanding of the game. He's very analytical about the whole thing. He'd be asking my opinion about loads of stuff going on in the backs. He'd say 'What's going on these days in the backs? What's different?' He does have quite a good understanding."

A cameo role in a team that, in attrition, has had to evolve, seems Fitzgerald's place right now, and given Geordan Murphy yesterday passed a fitness test on his Achilles tendon, London will not bring the start the youngster dearly wants.

O'Sullivan's contention that a dog-fight in Twickenham is not the place for an unaccustomed outside centre is evidently not shared by the England coach Brian Ashton. The usurping of Jonny Wilkinson at outhalf by 20-year-old Danny Cipriani has presented the "safe" English players with a patent ultimatum. Ashton, albeit in a last-gasp effort, is looking to youth as a catalyst for change. He sees Cipriani's fresh eyes as efficacious and restorative, not an encumbrance.

There is a summer tour and there are autumn internationals. There are now also age profiles to consider in an Ireland squad that professes to think in World Cup cycles. Doubtless, Fitzgerald is the future and in some eyes should also be the present.

"I'm going through a good patch of form," he says. "But I feel there's an awful long way to go."

Maybe, however, not as far as he suggests.