Old centre of resistance now looks to attack

Johnny Watterson talks to Kevin Maggs about his 50th cap and his image of being a "bosh merchant"

In the midst of the carnival at the team's Citywest Hotel base, Kevin Maggs seems faintly embarrassed. For a centre who has been sold to the world as a physical sort, he talks instead, with a Bristol twirl in his voice, an uncomplicated game full of thanks and praise for providence. Having tumbled through the last three years like a cast die, Maggs finds himself having rumbled to a halt with the six upturned. His 50th cap in a Grand Slam decider against England. It was never meant to be this way.

There had been schoolboy ambitions, but they centred around the soccer ball before he drifted loose from that mooring in his teenage years and found his aptitude for rugby was natural and strong. From that point the Maggs evolution has been from a civil engineering firm's pipe-and-paving-stone layer to a partnership with Brian O'Driscoll in the Irish midfield.

Sitting still now, with rounded slabs of shoulder muscle testing the elasticity of his Ireland shirt, Maggs does not have the cement mixer width and low centre of gravity of his captain and partner, but a compact, spare physique, hardened and always, always available to nobly line the turf. A massive misconception would be to confuse the mild manner with the professional player, but Maggs oozes a beguiling simplicity. It takes others to do his talking for him. Take O'Driscoll, after Ireland beat France.

"That tackle on Vincent Clerc . . . well, I winced on behalf of the French wing. People don't realise that it is the sound, that kind of "umph", when a player's breath leaves his body when hit, that's really scary. I thought we were going to need the stretcher. That's Maggsy for you."

While he meets O'Driscoll's public paean to his ability with jokey embarrassment, Maggs also meets the sharper words aimed at his "bosher" style of play with weary nonchalance. That might have defined his early days, but with three years of internationals behind him and now creeping up on a player of Keith Woods' stature in terms of caps (51), Maggs is not alone in believing he's picked up a little sophistication along the way. Bosher, basher, biffer. The connotations are not flattering.

"I've been called a bosh merchant a few times," he says. "Some people think I can only do one style of play and that's just to run into people. That's not the case, but, sure, I don't mind being called that. Somebody has to do it. Yeah, it's a derogatory term, but that's fine. It just goes with the territory."

Eddie O'Sullivan, who has stuck with his man even with a fit Leinster centre Shane Horgan breathing down his neck, defends Maggs more than the player himself.

"Kevin has developed a long way in the last three years since he's been involved with the team," says O'Sullivan. "He's worked very hard on his lines of running and he's now a lethal strike force with Brian O'Driscoll, because either of them can take the ball over the gain line.

"If people don't respect him for that it's their loss. He's carved up a lot of midfields with Ireland. Certainly calling him a bosher is a put down. The guy can play the hard yards, but he can run some smashing lines as well and defensively he's very good. I'd consider him one of the best inside centres in the game."

Mike Tindall, his Bath team-mate, should see the man in the words and recognise what O'Sullivan has to say. The centres play beside each other at the Recreation Ground and will meet in the midfield on Sunday. There is little chance of any glad-handing in their civies, no telephone calls to wish each other luck, no cheery waves. For a brief moment Maggs is unusually curt and direct.

"No, I haven't spoken to Mike, no. I'll see him Sunday," he says. "I won't make a deal out of ringing him. I'll just wait to see him on Sunday.

"Yeah, I know the way a lot of the England guys play from meeting them in the league week in week out, that familiarity is there, but I honestly don't think it is going to be a factor. This is a one-off game. Anything is likely to happen, and that's the beauty."

The natural instincts have been brought on by Mike Ford's defensive patterns and tighter all-round team discipline. In that respect he is a leader. O'Driscoll's mantra has been that he never feels he has to worry about what is going on inside him, such is the strength of his faith. In that respect the outside man feels more at ease, which is critical for Irish hopes. O'Driscoll's liberation often defines Ireland's most promising moments.

"Brian and Kevin have the chemistry," says O'Sullivan. "That's what made it work. When people give Brian too much attention Kevin exploits that, and when they give Kevin too much attention Brian exploits them.

"That's the conundrum of any team playing against those two players."

To mark the milestone, Maggs will lead the team out for the first time in Lansdowne Road. O'Driscoll will be behind him. It will be no different when the whistle blows.