A wing with a prayer for a little privacy

"NO I don't really want to do it," says Denis Hickie. "I mean, it was just a rugby match. I've had a lot of phone calls. Some girl from the Independent has been ringing me, some guy from RTE. Then the Sunday Times rang me last night.I mean. .. I haven't done anything really."

Denis Hickie carries the cadaverous look of an athlete. The hollow jaw is twitching around. He's squirming. Answering questions about himself is far from Hickie's idea of an ideal Thursday morning. Still, he's here in the Montrose Hotel. He's doing it.

"I don't feel comfortable being in articles and stuff. .. I'm not ... Simon Geoghegan... I mean I'm just a guy who played a match. . . I mightn't be picked again. .. well, I might be, and I mightn't be.. . I only got in on another guy's misfortune. . . because James Topping was sick... I hadn't been picked... I knew that was the case because I'd been selected for the A team. .. He might be alright in the next match... James... and you mightn't see me again... I don't want to be doing all these interviews and then they all come back in my face."

It's a busy time for the St Mary's and Irish winger. A week of incident. On Saturday he played his first match for Ireland and scored a try. Tuesday saw the back of another successful episode his commerce finals in UCD. Thursday next he's 21 and today is a critical match in St Mary's AIL campaign. But don't ask about today. Don't ask about St Mary's or Lansdowne. Today's match is not open to discussion. "I don't really want to talk about it." Today's match is out of bounds.

"Now can I talk about the game against Lansdowne, as opposed to any of our other games, without someone taking me up the wrong way. It's another game, same as any," he says. "Whatever I say, it's going, to be construed as an opinion."

Hickie's life in the last week has gathered a momentum that he feels requires some resistance. People are now seeking his opinion. The players have told him what would happen. They explained to him the way the media glare sometimes has a way of shinning in your eyes. But he's not one to get caught up in the palaver.

"I don't want to be talking to people saying this that and the other. It's all so fiddly. You see it all the time - people make one mistake and all of a sudden papers are writing all this stuff whereas two weeks previously, they'd be saying how brilliantly everything is going. I wouldn't swallow it. The only opinions that count, with respect, are the coach, the players you play with and your family."

For Hickie, international rugby to date has been an emotion fest in the Cardiff Arms Park. And that try. Hogan moving the ball to the blind side. Staples charging in at full pelt. Corkery in support and delivering for Hickie to go over in the corner. To him that's not a lot to hang your hat on. Almost 21, learning with every club match he plays and just two years of senior rugby behind him, his endearing caution seems eminently sensible.

"I'm not trying to under play it," he says. "But any other winger who was there would have scored the same try. I don't think it had anything to do with me. I'm just a winger who happened to be there. Anyone would have finished it."

Kenny Dalglish might have said the same about his three foot tap ins. Perhaps David Campese, too, when he went over in the corner with a fullback and a winger swinging out of his jersey. Mickie was there. The finish was simple. But he was there and Corkery was grateful.

As an A international and as an interprovincial player, Hickie, like the rest of the players, harboured ideas of international rugby, ideas that were for his consumption alone. He believed a chance might come some day. Certainly it would be well down the road, not around the corner. The conveyor belt was moving, but Hickie's view was that it would take time before the selectors saw that the product was factory tested and complete.

Performances this season for St Mary's drew only positive comment and for Leinster, Hickie's ability as a player who could find space amongst the clutter marked him as thinker as well as an athlete. It was thought that few combinations could bring a player further along the international road.

After the match against Wales former Irish player and current Lansdowne coach Donal Spring weighed in, saying that an injury free Hickie had the ability to become a "truly great" player.

"It (Irish cap) came quicker than I anticipated. When you play interpro you say, `well, I'm the next step up'. But I thought it was going to be years, not months. I was surprised when they picked me because I thought James had flu. I had the same thing before the French A match. You re wrecked for a few days, then you wake up one morning and you re grand. That's what I thought would happen. I didn't expect him to cry off.

"Getting picked was a good reflection on me, but it has also a lot to do with how well the club is doing. That all helps. It's hard to get yourself picked if you're getting hammered every week, especially in a position like mine. If we're getting milled up front I'm not going to see any ball. I'm going to spend my days running around after people. You don't get noticed doing that."

The Cardiff experience has clearly opened Hickie's eyes wider. As much as revelling in his first cap, he has used the run to highlight areas of his game that can be further improved. A pragmatic approach to errors and a refusal to inflate his achievement are characteristics that should aid and abet any learning process. Hickie's unshakable belief is that he, more than anyone, is still at school.

"I made a few mistakes. Everyone does. I dropped a high ball and let yer man (Daffyd James) run down the pitch - and I missed him in a tackle. Obviously, you try to eliminate errors. You just hope you've learned enough to get by.

The future, beyond the matches against England and Scotland in the Five Nations, is still obscure. The Irish tour to New Zealand this summer may or may not clash with the final tranche of his finals. Rugby may well play a pivotal role in his career after college, but as yet he is unsure of how successfully a player can marry a full time job to a professional sport. Postgraduate work may provide the answer.

"I like the lifestyle of being in college. You can't knock it. But I think getting a job and playing rugby wouldn't be all that realistic. In college you get away with it because it's on your own back. When an exam comes up, you cram. If you have a job you'd be letting other people down."

Doininic Crotty, James Topping, Denis Hickie and maybe soon Simon Geoghegan. Irish coach Brian Ashton isn't lacking competition in his wing positions, but with Geoghegan's toes, and Topping probably needing to prove himself in defence, it augurs well for a competitive Irish squad.

"I can't play down the fact that I'd a lot on this week," he says. "I could have tanked my exams on Tuesday. Still, what's in the future or what's in the past, I'll still remember Saturday as a great day. Even if I never play for Ireland again."