The other Maurice Fitzgerald props up Biarritz effort

John O'Sullivan talks to the Dutch-born, English-raised loosehead who plays his club rugby in France

Maurice Fitzgerald to play at Lansdowne Road. It's a headline guaranteed to cause consternation in the Kingdom.

But the Maurice Fitzgerald who plays there this afternoon is not Caherciveen's finest; this 27-year-old, born in The Hague, Holland, to English parents but playing his club rugby in France, will figure at loosehead prop for Biarritz as they take on Leinster in the Heineken European Cup quarter-final.

When it is relayed to him that he shares a name with one of the great Irish sportsmen, Fitzgerald smiles, "I feel very honoured." Despite the name, his Irish connections are a little tenuous.

"There's certainly Irish ancestry there. I've only been to Ireland on rugby trips. I was raised in England. I'm not sure how far back you'd have to go to trace the Irish angle, maybe to my great grandfather."

The Dutch birthplace is down to his British foreign office diplomat father being posted there at the time. The family returned to England before he was two.

Fitzgerald's rugby pedigree is also considerably more clear-cut. He has played for England Schools, Under-19s, Under-21s, Students and this season, England A. His presence in Biarritz has origins in the dissolution of Richmond Rugby club.

"I was in Richmond when it broke up. At the time I was a bit bitter with the whole situation, everything that happened there, because Richmond had been my club. I'd played mini-rugby there and I suppose it meant more to me than to the other players.

"I had studied French at Durham University and had to spend a year in France and went to Biarritz. I'd stayed in contact with the club and had plans to spend a couple of years playing there but at the end of my career more than anything else.

"We were laid off on the Wednesday and I went out to talk to the people at Biarritz that weekend; it was scheduled before Richmond folded. I moved to France six weeks later. That was in 1999."

Fitzgerald's career might have taken a completely different path but for a knee injury. "In 1996-97 the England Under-21s toured Australia with Clive Woodward as coach. I suffered a knee injury at the start of the season and had to undergo an operation and as a result missed the tour.

"When he (Woodward) became national coach he brought several players from that underage tour, like Phil Vickery and Matt Perry, into the full set-up. "

Fitzgerald's last appearance in Ireland was a 30-second cameo in Ireland A's victory over their England counterparts, "just in time to see that bloody penalty go over", the one that denied England a Grand Slam at that level.

He didn't play against Leinster when the sides met in the European Cup two years ago. "We played Northampton in our first match in the European Cup ever and thought 'this isn't too hard'. We made a few changes to play away to Leinster and got absolutely smashed by a fantastic Leinster team. It was a real wake-up call.

"I was on the bench when Leinster came out to us. The conditions were awful, a couple of feet of mud. I then came across for the Munster game in the quarter-final that year, again starting on the bench."

Fitzgerald enjoyed his debut season in the England A set-up but feels the World Cup may come a little soon for him to be considered. After his underage success there was a lull in his representative career and only a stroke of good fortune revived it.

"A video somehow came into the possession of England scrummaging coach Phil Keith Roach and he gave me a call. He saw the Orange Cup match between the English and French champions, Leicester and ourselves, on television. Since then I have been in fairly regular contact. He's been out to see a couple of games."

As far as Fitzgerald is concerned, Leinster are the "boiling-hot favourites" today.

"It's a huge game, a huge occasion, against probably the best team we will play all year. It's going to be an unbelievable experience for us. There's a certain expectation. The fact the match is in Dublin, a long way from Biarritz, a small town, perhaps makes it a little intangible to the people of Biarritz. It's not a two-hour or four-hour bus journey; it's two countries away, a big trip for those fans coming over. Also it's not necessarily very easy to get from Biarritz to Dublin."

Leinster are "a bloody good rugby team, a team that's good across the board, plays quick, exciting rugby and is very aggressive when they need to be. What's impressed me the most is that in all their European Cup games they have played at a level that is so consistent. There haven't been some good and some mediocre; they've maintained a high level. That's the mark of a team with real quality."

And if thing's don't work out at Lansdowne Road, there's always the All-Ireland championship.