A talent making up for lost time

Twelve months ago Girvan Dempsey's first inclination would have been to counter-attack, instead he kicked it downfield. The Terenure College and Ireland full back recalls the incident at Stade de France last Sunday week, when he manufactured a marvellous pick-up on the slide, beating the first-up tackler and suddenly there was space ahead but he kicked.

"I was a bit apprehensive about counter-attacking. Eddie (O'Sullivan) made me aware that we didn't want to get caught behind our pack, especially in Paris. I was to try and get distance on the kick or get up to the pack. I definitely didn't take the chances when I should have."

What observers tend to forget is that Dempsey has lost a sizeable portion of the season through injury.

Dempsey's progress was interrupted by a broken collarbone sustained while playing for Leinster against Connacht, just before the World Cup. His misfortune gave Peter McKenna the opportunity to shine for Leinster.

When Dempsey (24) was restored to full health he could not get back in the provincial side, thereby curtailing his rehabilitation in terms of match practice. "To get the setback when I did before the World Cup, I was gutted. At that stage it was difficult to see how I was going to get back into the national squad.

"I was delighted to get the chance. To be honest I was a bit apprehensive about whether I was going to get in for the Six Nations. Once I did it was a question of getting games under my belt and my confidence has grown," he says.

"Losing your sharpness through inactivity is a big drawback and very frustrating. There was nothing much going on at club level at that time. I spent a good few weeks without matches. In fairness Peter (McKenna) did very well.

"I was sitting there thinking that it was going to be very difficult with him playing so well and in form. There was also the fact that Mike Ruddock was saying that he was reluctant to change a winning side.

"I was really dying to get back in but when I did, I think I was overeager, trying too hard."

Dempsey has learnt the value of patience and a measured progression and this has been manifest in his performances for Ireland. He has improved with every game, a fact noted and commented upon by Ireland's assistant coach Eddie O'Sullivan.

The great aspect is that Dempsey still possesses huge scope to improve further. Those who recall his debut against Georgia will remember the brace of tries he scored when coming on as a replacement (he has subsequently scored two more in his 11 caps to date, both against Italy albeit in different matches).

Dempsey has no problem identifying the highlight of his career to date: "Paris. It was unbelievable, fantastic. The one thing that really hit me was the support of the Irish crowd in the last 15 minutes. The first five or 10 minutes was just deafening, just a complete noise from the French singing Allez Bleus. They were coming at us in waves and we kind of stepped back.

"Gradually we settled down and got our game going. There were a couple of turning points, one was Denis's (Hickie) tackle (on Marc Dal Maso) under the posts. If they had got the seven points they would have slipped that little bit far ahead. The other memory is when we did our lap of honour afterwards, none of us wanted to go in. We have had a lot of lows so it was great to see that."

Dempsey enthuses about the style of rugby that Ireland are playing. "There is a sufficiently high skill level to play this type of game.

It's very easy to go back into your shell and play the forward-orientated game - that's been tried and tested and we haven't gained much from it. We seem to be going forward from the style we are playing at the moment."