Hickie is hungrier than ever

He's back? Stronger, fitter and, perhaps, hungrier than ever, Denis Hickie needs to show he is not only rejuvenated and rehabilitated, but reincarnated as well. For many tonight at Donnybrook, but no one more so than Hickie, the stakes could hardly be higher. Firstly as Leinster captain and then, on a personal level, the World Cup.

You wouldn't envy some of the candidates pushing for inclusion in the World Cup squad. Games are few and far between this month, and one bad one could scupper hopes.

The back-row contest, with five internationals on view, is eagerlyawaited (with Kieron Dawson probably returning to the frame soon too) but the reservoir of wingers, previously dry, has been filling up again. Evidence of this is the return of the in-form Hickie and his right-wing counterpart for Ulster, James Topping, who are pressing for inclusion along with Justin Bishop and Matt Mostyn, and, you'd like to think still, Niall Woods.

Both Topping and Hickie saw their international careers stall after sustaining serious injuries on last year's tour of South Africa. Hickie broke his jaw in the second Test in Pretoria.

Resuming in mid-November saw a loss of form and a back injury, eventually culminating in the AIL semi-final when Garryowen detected Hickie's vulnerability under the high ball and ruthlessly went for the jugular. So does he regard this campaign as a fresh slate?

"That's the way rugby works. I think every season is a fresh slate. If you have a couple of bad games in a season, it's hard to redress it in that season. You don't have the break to do the extra work during the season, so a break in the seasons does give you a chance. And if you have the break that I have," he adds, smiling, "then the slate is so clean you can see your face on it."

Up until that first Test, Hickie's career had all gone swimmingly. A born natural and a born winner it seemed, the son of Tony Hickie - widely regarded as one of Ireland's best full-backs never to have won a cap - and named after his uncle who won four caps at number eight, Hickie's CV chartered nothing but achievements until a year ago.

He emulated his father by captaining St Mary's College to a Leinster Senior Schools Cup win in 1994, played for Leinster schools seven times, helped the Irish schools and under-21s to Triple Crowns, played for Ireland A and then broke into the Irish team two weeks later when, ironically, Topping withdrew injured; scoring a try on his debut against Wales.

On it went. The season before last was vintage Hickie, underscoring his status as the best winger in the domestic game. He led the way in the AIL, with 14 tries in 12 starts, added three more when largely under-served on the Leinster wing, and took his international tally to five in 10 Tests with three tries in the championship, culminating in a hungry, hard-working two-try display in Twickenham.

The "non-year" which followed, as he phlegmatically describes it, is something seemingly every Irish player has to go through.

But Hickie admits: "Even when I was fit I wasn't playing well. I was off the pace in a number of areas. Sometimes you're just not playing well. It may be injuries, it may be confidence, but I just regard it as not playing well."

The simple perception of Hickie may be that it all came a bit too easily, that he's not a leading candidate for the role of Braveheart and that he's now out of the frame. But that's probably wide of the mark. Despite coming across as vertically laidback, the postsummer, strengthened Hickie strongly hints at a deeper inner resolve.

His coach, Mike Ruddock, has waxed lyrical about the remodelled Hickie, but the player himself plays it down. "I am fitter and stronger but bench presses don't win you caps."

Wing is not the best position to captain a team - arguably it's the worst - but there aren't many alternatives in Leinster, a point Hickie readily accepts. And he enjoyed ringing mates with the opener: "You'll never guess who they've made captain?"

It has the added benefit of "helping my own game. You have to watch the game a lot more closely." It may also have further diminished any satisfaction over scoring two tries last weekend.

"It was nice to score the tries, but I'm here to win games and to win championships. Scoring tries is what I'm there to do, the same as Mal winning line-outs. And as a player, you play to win, and to win for the team."

Breaking into the Irish team second time around would be sweeter than the first. "It's brilliant at first, and it's not as if you take it for granted after a while, you still appreciate it, but when you're on the outside looking in all of a sudden, it's desperate, and you just can't wait to get back in there again."

Shouldn't be long now.