Time to end Leinster's `curse'

Donning Leinster's number 10 jersey this season has proved to be a fast-track to the treatment table or the replacements' bench. Emmet Farrell was the first casualty, injuring his kneecap on a pre-season tour to Wales; Andy Dunne suffered concussion on the same trip and was ruled out for three weeks; and Mark McHugh, Simon Broughton and latterly Dunne have since tried but failed to make the position their own.

The latest incumbent is 24-year-old Maori Eddie Hekenui, spirited from Otago to Dublin to solve the outhalf conundrum. He too has failed to avoid misfortune. He should have made his debut for Leinster against Connacht last weekend but calf and groin strains in his first week's training with the province forced him to withdraw.

Hekenui, who has played outhalf with the New Zealand Colts, under-21s and under-23s, retains a sense of humour with regard to the calamities that have befallen both himself and his predecessors.

"When I knew that I would be coming to Leinster I immediately stopped playing competitive rugby and just concentrated on training so that I could arrive fit and ready to play. Then, what happens? I come here and get injured. I should just have kept playing in New Zealand," he says, smiling.

He expects to make his debut tomorrow night when Leinster travel to Myreside to take on Edinburgh Reivers in their opening Heineken European Cup match. He has been named in the team and medical opinion supports his optimism.

Hekenui owes his presence in Ireland to St Mary's College coach and former Otago number eight Brent Pope, who initially invited him to join the Dublin club. Pope had returned to Otago during the summer accompanying several young St Mary's players intent on broadening their rugby education. "I started talking to Brent and he mentioned that there would be an opportunity for me to come and play with Mary's.

"Then the Leinster contract came on stream and negotiations started on that. Originally I would just have come to play with St Mary's."

Hekenui's decision to leave Otago was born of frustration. He had played for Otago's first team in 1998 and '99, understudying All Black Tim Brown but this season found himself languishing on the development side (the B team).

"When the All Blacks came back you automatically dropped to the B team, so I was looking for other opportunities," he explains.

Hekenui was an interested, if frustrated, spectator at the Sportsground last weekend when he had the chance to observe his new team-mates in a competitive environment.

So how did he view the standard? "I thought it was really good. I was talking to Kev (Leinster scrum-half Kevin Putt) and he pointed out that the team was really functioning as two units: the forwards were doing their thing and the backs theirs. As a result the communication levels dropped.

"The key thing for a team is to be able to play all as one. In that match it was a question of hold onto the ball and keep moving forward. It was a game that we should have won."

He sees his responsibilities as clearly defined. "I'm there for goalkicking, attacking the opposition and setting the plays. I believe in not just calling one move but the next two after that so that everyone knows where we are going. Ultimately my responsibility will be to call the shots."

And with that, Hekenui departed for a little additional time on the treatment table, desperately hoping that he proves the exception to the rule as far as the Leinster number 10 jersey is concerned this season.