Last season he couldn't get a look-in for province or country. But from third in Munster to first choice in Leinster Brian O'Meara is pressing for a place in Ireland's squad again. Tis a fickle game to be sure.

Not that there hasn't been a hiccup along the way. Having partnered three different outhalves in Leinster's first four games, suddenly O'Meara was jettisoned for a couple of outings against Connacht and the European opener away to Edinburgh Reivers by the co-opting of Kevin Putt onto the Leinster team. In hindsight, though O'Meara maintains he was playing well and was shocked, it may have been the making of him.

Matt Williams candidly admits he wanted more from O'Meara. "I want my halfback to pose a threat to the opposition. I want a halfback who can kick with both feet, who's got a great pass and obviously can organise and tackle in defence. What that does is make defenders hold, and Brian could kick and pass but he wasn't running, and he probably wasn't getting the ball away from the phases as quickly as we would have liked, though that wasn't all his fault, that was also some of our clearing and our ball presentation."

The fear was that O'Meara might have sulked but he came back even stronger. The turning point was an injury to Putt after 15 minutes of the Biarritz game. "To his credit, Brian's got better every single time he's played," enthuses Williams. "He's posing a threat to opposition teams, his running game has improved, he's growing in confidence, the pace of his service has improved, and his kicking game has improved out of sight."

There's more still to O'Meara's running game, but he has become louder, bossier and more decisive, and he looks a better player than he's ever done. Then again, he is only 24!

Just being back in the spotlight has helped him enjoy the game again. "Last year I didn't enjoy it one bit. I couldn't even enjoy the Munster experience because I was on the periphery, looking in and thinking `I'd love to be there'."

As an eyewitness to one European Cup final run, O'Meara is in a better position than most to evaluate Leinster's standing. "They certainly have the potential," he says pausing, "but potential doesn't necessarily mean anything. I think once this team is really mentally disciplined, gives away no stupid penalties and really focus they've a great chance. I think the key to Leinster is not to try to do everything at the start of a game, like score a try from 80 yards, but play patient rugby and once we play in their half, as we saw last week, and after eight or nine phases we scored a try against Munster. I think we should take it one step at a time and not look too far into the future."

Spoken like a true Munsterman? Rugby teams are rugby teams, and for O'Meara the change in dressing-rooms wasn't exactly a culture shock. "You have your jokers, like Gary Halpin versus Peter Clohessy. Every team's the same, you have your quiet fellas and your noisy fellas. Different characters in every team and it's great craic here too."

The style is a little different though. "Munster really dominate and pressurise teams more for their scores whereas if we have the choice of kicking to the corner in defence or running it, the Leinster backs usually want to run it. It's very enjoyable to play and very scary at times as well."

Though there's been no bad blood from Munster and Cork Constitution have been very accommodating too, it was a nervewracking, month-long decision to make. "There were a number of factors. One, if I left everybody would say he thinks Peter Stringer and Tom Tierney are better players, which I don't. Other factors would be players like Barry Everitt and Dave O'Mahony who left and had been relatively successful but to be honest hadn't really worked out too well provincial-wise, and I didn't want to go up with people thinking my career was over. I looked upon it as a chance to play week-in, week-out and get back on the Irish squad that way. It's worked out well, luckily enough for me, so far."

Williams has been encouraging O'Meara to be a place-kicking option all season and ultimately O'Meara assumed the role in Musgrave Park last Friday for Leinster's 17-15 win. Albeit relatively pressure free amid the "Briano" moniker from former team-mates, O'Meara grins broadly and observes. "Three out of three and Ronan (O'Gara) only got two out of three."

Kicking guru David Alred has been a help on occasional visits to Leinster's training sessions and O'Meara adheres to Alred's comparison with golf. "Just the small things really, keeping your shoulder in line and follow through on the ball."

O'Meara did place-kick as far back as Munster Schools' Junior Cup level for Pres Cork, "but it wasn't terribly successful". A miss from in front of the posts, another against the woodwork and a charge down led to a first-round defeat and him "banishing the demons for a couple of years".

However he has kicked sporadically over the years until O'Gara's enforced absence in three December AIL games saw O'Meara assume the mantle at Constitution. He goes into tonight's match with 14 from 14 in three matches but concedes that "this will be a pressure night".

"It's a do-or-die game for them as it is for us. It's like the final of a Cup. Winner takes all really."