Old head is now ready to taste success

Ireland v France: Gerry Thornleytalks to an older and wiser Denis Hickie ahead of tomorrow's historic game at Croke Park, an occasion he regards as "something special".

Last Sunday marked a notable anniversary in Denis Hickie's career. Nearly to the day, he suspects, and he's not far wrong. He made his try-scoring debut in Cardiff against Wales on February 1st, 1997, and a decade on was back again, same town, different venue, the Millennium Stadium, February 4th, 2007.

He thought about the symmetry of it all and its meaning in the days building up to the match. "It was kind of strange. I find myself further and further back on the bus these days. Looking around, Humphs isn't there any more and Axel isn't there any more, so yeah it was strange. You take stock of these things more when you're finished but it was funny. I wasn't sure when I started off playing for Ireland that I'd have an international career spanning 10 years."

Such a career span ought, perhaps, have yielded more caps than 54 but then again Hickie has had more injury setbacks than most, and fallen out of favour with selectors along the way.

"I took a few years off in between alright, here and there," he says self-deprecatingly. "Some of them I didn't even take off."

Still, he's been fairly resilient along the way. "I suppose you could say that, but I suppose that's what rugby is all about. It's professional sport. It's very hard to keep playing well every week, and even if you do, the chances of you not getting injured are slim. Some people just get a bit more practice at it than others."

You ask how the 30-year-old Denis Hickie compares to the 20-year-old Denis Hickie and he quips: "Apart from the obvious visual changes," in reference to the rapidly receding hairline of recent years. "But who doesn't change in 10 years? And I've also been involved in a sport or a business, whatever way you want to describe it, that has changed a lot in the 10 years. I've been swept along on a lot of changes, I've been forced to change and the game today compared to 10 years ago is completely unrecognisable. And it will be again in another 10 years."

As a 20-year-old, he admits, you don't have a lot of baggage and you get cut a lot more slack, which a 20-year-old should.

"Most guys (that age) are very confident and you don't have a huge amount of pressure. You're not expected to contribute as much."

Some things have remained constant, such as a finishing ability second only to Brian O'Driscoll for Ireland, and with the years has come wisdom and a better understanding of the game, so much so that he is probably playing as well as ever.

Hickie looks at the criticism France coach Bernard Laporte has taken for invariably recalling the older guard and points out that England's World Cup winners were full of experienced older players.

"You need that to win a World Cup," he reasons, pointing out that this was a factor the Welsh grudgingly conceded last week, and that you also need defeats and disappointments along the way. He traces the gradual incline of Irish rugby, provincially and especially at Test level, winning at home, then going to England and France, taking on one of the Southern Hemisphere teams. Save for scalping the All Blacks, most of the boxes have been ticked.

A first title since 1985, of course, or emulating the sepia-tinged heroes of 1948, breaking new ground at the World Cup would be the logical next step.

Real rewards, ie, trophies, don't come along cheaply, such as Munster's Heineken European Cup victory or Ireland's two Triple Crown successes in the last three years, but such have been the interruptions in Hickie's career that he reminds you he wasn't part of the latter two successes. His Achilles injury of three seasons ago, and the preference for Andrew Trimble last season, meant he missed out on both.

Hickie is by no means the oldest winger in town - look at the form of the 34-year-olds, Jason Robinson, and Hickie's opposite tomorrow, Christophe Dominici.

The latter he admits, but his latest comeback, or reincarnation, was the product of perhaps his hardest summer on the track and the gym. His desire to regain his Irish place was also manifest in his decision to come back a couple of weeks ahead of his 10-week pre-season. "You can train a bit smarter as well. Irrespective of anything, I wouldn't be doing the same work as a lot of people anyway. But as you get a bit older you know what you need to do."

One of the immediate rewards will be the honour of playing on the hallowed turf of Croke Park tomorrow. Amid the heavy diet of Test rugby, he acknowledges that the fixture's novelty is particularly refreshing for the public, though, such is the dizzy level of expectation that Hickie likens it to a preordained script.

"Page one: Go to Croker. Page Two: Watch Ireland win at Croker for the first time. Page Three: Go home happy. But that doesn't necessarily follow either. We're playing France. They'll give it the due respect, but no more than when we go to Stade de France. For them, it's just another big stadium."

There will also, of course, be the same degree of familiarisation for the Irish team with the surface (which Hickie likens to the Stade de France) and its surrounds, but whatever happens that will be the least of Ireland's problems if they lose the match.

Hickie reasons: "I can't see any reason why 80,000 in Croke Park will shout any less than 50,000 in Lansdowne Road."

Not one for clichés, he wouldn't dare call this just another game. "Everyone is very professional, and it's important that you treat the game professionally, but I think there's a lot to be gained in stepping back and acknowledging that it is different, that it is something special.

"If you're too robotic about these things, and say it's just another game - yes you do have to be like that and we do that anyway - but if there's something extra to be gotten out of an occasion, what's the harm in letting yourself be immersed in that? That's what life is about, not just rugby."

Games against France are also a good barometer of the graph in Hickie's, and Ireland's, career. "I grew up as a kid thinking France couldn't be beaten. They just couldn't be beaten. Ireland just couldn't beat France, and even at the start of my playing career, Ireland couldn't beat France.

"If they could keep the score down, it was good and when we nearly won there it was almost treated like a victory at the time."

He prefers the more rarefied atmosphere of heightened expectations nowadays and points out that most of his team-mates have had to grow up quickly, citing O'Driscoll being made captain at 24. It goes hand-in-hand with a better understanding of the game and greater familiarity with opponents.

"I really am enjoying this year. It's been tough. I've put myself under more pressure but maybe when you get to this stage in my career you need more pressure."

Like everyone, he senses Irish rugby could be on the cusp of something special.

"That's why I didn't just want to get back on the team just so I could say I was back on the team. Goal achieved. I wanted to get back because I know this team is capable of winning something and I want to be involved in that. It's all about winning stuff.

"That maybe is the greatest advantage of experience. When you're younger you don't really think about things like that as much. Getting on the team is your goal. Staying on the team is your goal. Getting capped for Ireland. They're probably the same goals you had when you were 10. But then you start thinking playing for Ireland is the ultimate, or is it? Is the ultimate not winning with Ireland? And you don't really have that clarity until you reach a certain stage.

"It's hard to say when that is, but I'd say if you asked every player they'd probably agree. At the start it's all about playing for Ireland, but then one day it's about winning for Ireland. And that's the big difference."