Fitzgerald slowly finding his feet

Patience is indeed very much a virtue, especially when you're young, but it does conjure the occasional reward scheme for those who work diligently. Luke Fitzgerald is battling for a starting place on the Leinster team to take on Toulouse in the Heineken European Cup at the RDS on Saturday, an ambition that looks like being realised.

Shane Horgan's rib injury may keep him on the sideline for one more week, a fate that Rob Kearney could share because of a leg problem. Fitzgerald is waiting in the wings, so to speak. At 20 years old, he's very much a work in progress trying to make the transition from schools star to a stand-out senior player.

He's made a decent fist of the journey so far, winning a couple of Ireland caps as a teenager and offering several glimpses of his huge potential. His priority is to mesh those cameos of excellence into a consistently high level of performance.

It's not about avoiding mistakes, it's more a case of not repeating the same ones. His display against the Ospreys last Saturday could sum up where his career is at the moment. At times he was superb, darting and weaving untouched through human traffic by virtue of brilliant footwork but he'll be the first to appreciate that performing the basics competently comes first.

There were one or two glitches where concentration and composure were marked absent from the match roll call. He's the first to acknowledge mistakes, admitting: "There were a few opportunities that went amiss", going on to specify one in which fullback Girvan Dempsey and Fitzgerald didn't convert a two-on-one chance for a try.

"We have actually talked it over (since then) because it's important to put those opportunities away. Against the likes of Toulouse you'd have to when you're close to the line. There was an issue on my part in not being close enough to him (Dempsey) when he looked to give the ball. It (meant that it) was a long pass to give."

At school, Fitzgerald was an exceptional fullback and centre but his senior education has incorporated a crash course on wing play. He's learning a new trade but refuses to make excuses, smiling: "I prefer to play fullback . . . but I suppose I would be more comfortable on the left wing (if choosing one side). You do get the ball more often and a few more opportunities.

"I have played there (on the wing) enough times at this stage. That wasn't the only occasion when my timing might have been off slightly. I haven't been hitting the line at 100 per cent, so it's very important to get these things right."

While he reads the newspapers, a more accurate gauge of his performances, both as an individual and within the collective, will come from the Leinster camp. "We are the most critical when it comes to the way we play and even when others have said we have played brilliantly we will sift through the finer details.

"Johnny (Sexton) said it in an interview a few weeks ago we really do owe the forwards a big performance. It is very important for us to be capitalising on those opportunities they are providing for us. We are getting close to coming back into form.

"There were a few games where we didn't perform to the levels we were capable of and we were disappointed at that. It's important we put in two big performances, especially given the quality of opposition."

Fitzgerald is more used to his surroundings, no longer the callow schoolboy. "As you get older you get more comfortable with the burden. I feel a lot more comfortable in the games from a physical perspective, more comfortable with the pace of the games and the positional side of things."

He retains that insatiable appetite of the young. There can never be enough matches but one like Saturday's represents a pretty decent benchmark of ambition and ability.