Johnny Watterson talks to South Africa full back Percy Montgomery who acknowledges his game and attitude has matured in recent years.

A green woollen hat. Blond wisps curling out. Percy Montgomery strides across Blackrock's main pitch at Stradbrook as the Springboks romp through their drills under a watery November sun. Montgomery has been inflicting deep cuts in teams this year.

A player plucked out of Wales and back into national duty, the current full back is enjoying his twilight Test years in a new guise. Mr experience, Mr sure-boot, Mr reliable. It was never always so.

A name plucked from an Evelyn Waugh novel and now one of the blades on the South African rugby team, Montgomery's return this season to the international fold has also earned him the title of leading points scorer in Springboks rugby. When changes to selection conditions allowed coach Jake White to cast his net globally, it was Montgomery and Jaco van der Westhuyzen's careers that he elongated.

This year White has been repaid lavishly for dusting down the former centre and reconditioning his Test career. The 30-year-old did not play one Test match between 2001 and 2004.

While he and van der Westhuyzen each scored one of South Africa's four tries against Wales last Saturday, Montgomery also added four penalties and three conversions. Those 18 points kicked brings the full back's points total to 115 for this season alone - 23 conversions, 23 penalties - and has carried him far beyond the long-standing points record of 312 scored by Naas Botha. He is now on 376 points and growing.

Now the blond wisps take on a dashing appearance. One of Waugh's impossibly dashing aristocrats is enjoying the role of a player to whom White looks to for structure after an earlier career in which the unexpected was the norm.

Montgomery's love-hate relationship with the South African public was never so intense as when he packed up and moved north. He left in 2002, to join Newport, in controversial circumstances and through his agent blamed quotas for black players in the national side as a reason for departing, saying Conrad Jantjes and Ricardo Loubscher had the inside running at full back.

"I just moved on from it," he says with a shrug. "I think as a player you cannot let criticism get in your way. You stay positive. Same with any sport. You've got to stay positive in your sport and move on. I know what I am capable of doing. Just gotta' move forward. I believe in working hard and receiving the rewards."

Namibian-born Montgomery was disliked in certain parts of South Africa, particularly the Afrikaaner-dominated areas in the north. While he acknowledged in the past that he played a part in attracting the disapproval of the conservative Pretoria crowd (the shiny silver boots and peroxide hair never impressed the Afrikaaners), his work ethic and maturity had made him one of the most influential members of White's party.

"Maybe Newport have me kicking more than I did perhaps years ago," he says. "I wasn't the number one when I was back home. Now I am. I'm also definitely a different player than I was in my mid 20s. I've put on a bit of weight and I've more experience. I think that I can definitely read the game a bit better. That's experience."

To gift him with the type of maturity that kills the creative spark would be to deny him the vein of roguery that has always laced his game. And with Newport he was handed down a stiff ban for pushing a touch-judge in a fit of pique. But his stint in the Celtic League and Heineken European Cup will have broadened his horizon.

"There is definitely a significant difference between playing in Wales and at home. Firstly, at home it's a bit quicker than, certainly the Celtic League. But I think the Heineken Cup is just as intense. They play a lot tighter game over here, obviously with the weather conditions that's the way the guys play the game. At home though they just tend to throw the ball the width of the field a bit more.

When "Monty" was first brought back into the squad by White, the coach was asked in an interview why he wanted to bring in a player who, although extremely talented, courted such an unattractive type of attention. White was typically candid.

"Monty has matured quite a bit since those days and having had a good chat with him, it is clear he realises this is his career and he does not have time for distractions," said White.

"As for the silver boots . . . well, I do not believe he will ever go down that road again as that is not the type of attention he is looking for."

Having missed the first Test of the year, against Ireland, during the summer because of a hand injury, Montgomery returned to play in the second. He's now five Test match wins from five against Ireland. The hair remains. The boots have gone. The attitude is different.

Seasoned, not softened.