RECALLED French scrum-half Fabien Galthie aims to put on a match-winning display in Dublin tomorrow and finally make the position his own after several false starts.

Galthie, 28, last played a full international for France in their 19-9, third-place play-off win over England in the 1995 World Cup - although he did replace the injured Guy Accoceberry during the Five Nations match against Wales last March.

The Colomiers scrum-half, who made his debut as a precocious and headstrong 22-year-old in 1991, alongside stars such as Philippe Sella and Serge Blanco, has had to fight hard to regain his place in the team.

Galthie has been restricted to 17 caps because of a combination of loss of form and ankle and wrist injuries which had put him third in the queue, behind Accoceberry and Brive's Philippe Carbonneau.

He was fortunate even to play in the two World Cup matches - the semi-final defeat by South Africa and against England - because both Accoceberry and Aubin Hueber were injured and he was playing club rugby in South Africa at the time.

However, French supremo Jean-Claude Skrela decided to give another chance to the man who served him so well when he coached Colomiers. Galthie aims to repay the confidence shown in him.

I realise that at international level second chances rarely come about and with me it is something like my fourth chance, so I owe Skrela a debt of gratitude for having the confidence to recall me," Galthie said.

I intend to repay Skrela by performing well in this season's Five Nations, use it as a springboard for the tour of Australia next year, and play in the 1999 World Cup, fulfilling my dream of playing in three World Cups," Galthie added.

Galthie's weakness has been a lack of command around the scrum. He is also guilty of taking rash decisions. This was certainly a factor when he was dropped after a humiliating loss to Argentina in Nantes in November 1992.

However, Jo Maso, the French team manager, said that the selectors felt he had overcome this handicap and that was why he had leapfrogged over Carbonneau and Accoceberry.

"It was a hard decision as we have three excellent candidates for the scrum-half position, but we felt that Galthie has matured in his work round the scrum and with it his all-round play has grown, so he deserves his chance," Maso said.

Galthie teams up with stand-off Alain Penaud, who he last partnered in the 1994 Five Nations tournament before he was dropped after three matches.

"It will be good to team up with Alain as we had a good understanding and I was on the point of joining him at Brive, but then decided to stay at Colomiers," Galthie said.

Galthie realises that a poor performance, particularly against an Ireland team that is reckoned to be the weakest in the tournament, would ruin his plans and let in Penaud's Brive team mate Carbonneau, who, at 25, is three years younger.

"I know that as scrum-half, one is made the scapegoat more often than any other position, particularly as we are the linkman between the backs and the forwards, but I believe that I am much more mature than I was and that this will be reflected in my performance," Galthie said.

For a man who realises that this is probably his last chance, Galthie will be a man inspired tomorrow. That can only spell trouble for an Irish team which, more often than not, relies on making up for their lack of talent by possessing more spirit than their opponents.