Cave ready to step up and take his chance with both hands

POOL FOUR:DARREN CAVE attended Ireland's pre-World Cup training camp aware that only an outlandish set of circumstances would allow him to travel to New Zealand.

He embraced his peripheral role with enthusiasm and when afforded an opportunity to play for an Irish XV in a warm-up game against Connacht took the opportunity to remind the national management of his talent.

The previous October, on the opening weekend of the Heineken Cup, he ruptured his hamstring while playing for Ulster against Aironi, tearing it from the bone behind his knee.

The medical consensus was not to operate, instead to develop and strengthen the muscles to restore stability to the damaged area. It kept him sidelined until the following March.

Successfully returning to competitive fare, he came off the bench against the Newport Gwent Dragons, only for the scar tissue to bleed. The upshot was a three week lay-off that denied him a place in Ulster’s Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat to the Northampton Saints at the Ricoh arena: it is against that backdrop that any World Cup aspirations perished.

The latter might seem a grandiose statement but a quick look at the pedigree of the 24-year-old outside centre suggests that a high profile season for Ulster might have left Ireland coach Declan Kidney with another name to consider before deciding his squad for New Zealand.

Cave played for Ireland at Schools, Under-19, U-20, U-21, Sevens and A grades. The fine print of those achievements is even more compelling. He played for the Ireland U-19 side as a 17-year-old, while at 18, lined out for the national Under-21 side (the IRB subsequently decided to get rid of that grade and replace it with an Under-20 age limit).

It was at the latter level that he was an integral part of the national team that won a Grand Slam during the 2007 Six Nations Championship under the coaching baton of Eric Elwood. In May 2009 he won the first of his two full Ireland caps on a summer tour to Canada and the USA as a plethora of Irish players were required to travel with the Lions to South Africa.

He impressed again for Ulster the following season under the then new coach Brian McLaughlin but the ruptured hamstring in October 2010 effectively scuppered his World Cup ambitions. Not that he was bullish about his prospects. “Ireland had so many good backs and despite playing for the Wolfhounds (Ireland A) I knew it would be a struggle to even be considered.

“The injury effectively ended any lingering hope. It was great to be involved in the national training camp, to play in the Connacht match. I left the camp with a hugely positive outlook. Going forward there is nothing I can say; it’s about what I do on the pitch.

“I knew that Paddy (Wallace) would be away at the World Cup and that I would have six matches to try and lock down a place with Ulster. We have so many good centres, players like Nevin Spence, Ian Whitten and Luke Marshall.

“In effect I had six shop windows. I used to look enviously at the Leinster and Munster boys playing in those massive Heineken Cup matches, beating the big French and English teams and going on to win trophies. I was disappointed to miss our quarter-final.”

He watched the World Cup armed with the knowledge that the draw for this season’s European Cup meant Ulster would play Clermont Auvergne and Leicester Tigers. Cave distilled the information into a more personal context. He looked forward to testing himself against Aurelien Rougerie, a seminal player for France in New Zealand, and another headline grabber in England’s Manu Tuilagi.

“I knew the ball would be in my court and that’s all I could ask for; the opportunity. If they made me look stupid then I might have to accept that I wasn’t good enough.”

Last weekend at Ravenhill, he acquitted himself more than capably against Rougerie. Cave smiled: “It was everything I expected. He’s an excellent player, a real handful but I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

This week Ulster travel to Leicester Tigers but Cave is unlikely to face the younger Tuilagi, who is set to miss out again with a damaged cheek.

“The most important thing is team. Saturday will be about finding a balance between giving them the respect they deserve and going there with a positive mindset. They don’t lose many games there but they haven’t been on fire this season. We won in Bath, proving that we can win in England.”

Cave is a genuine outside centre, a beautifully balanced runner with a step, strength, good vision and hands, who runs intelligent lines and excels in creating space for others. The injury to Ireland’s captain Brian O’Driscoll and his enforced six month sabbatical means that Ireland are interviewing for the number 13 jersey.

“When you look at players like Fergus (McFadden), Luke (Fitzgerald), Keith (Earls) and Tommy (Bowe), their versatility makes them so valuable quite apart from their ability.

“Outside centre is where I play and that might be viewed in a positive or negative light.”