Wallace aiming to face Ulster on return

It was Harry Williams' final match as coach of Ulster. Playing Saracens in the European Cup on a frozen brick of a pitch in January at Ravenhill, it was also the last match of the season for the visitors' prop Paul Wallace.

The Lions, Ireland and Saracens' tight head was driving through the Ulster pack when his foot snagged in the ground. He and his limb ended up travelling in different directions. The bone fractured and his ankle joint dislocated.

Williams went off to coach Lansdowne, Wallace to the operating theatre for steel plates and screws.

In what he had hoped to be a year of rehabilitation on the Irish side and a chance to prove that a Lions berth was not beyond reach, Wallace faced the prospect of rehabilitation of a different nature. His foot in plaster he idled as the season and the international opportunities of Ireland and the Lions passed him by.

This month with Leinster, prospects have again brightened and a new challenge faces him. Optimistically Wallace has targeted Leinster's second match of the Interprovincial campaign on August 31st against Ulster as his chance to regain his standing as one of the game's top front-row players.

The move from London to Dublin was made with that thought specifically in mind.

"I was approached by Leinster and Munster at around the same time. But I saw myself living in Dublin. It was a smaller change coming from London where I had been for five years, smaller than say going back to Limerick or Cork," he says.

"The main reason for the move was to get back on the Irish team. If you are playing in England you are always out of sight of the selectors. I was strongly advised to play my rugby in Ireland if I wanted to play for Ireland. The IRFU are quite open about that.

"I'm enjoying it back here. It is now a better set-up than when I left five years ago. It's easier to come back, better structures in place, better organised and more competitive games."

Looking for an apartment convenient to Leinster's ground in Donnybrook, Wallace has not yet engaged in full training but is undertaking light running and lots of strength work. The issue is nearing one of confidence in his ankle as much as whether the healing process has fully run its course.

"I'd a double break and dislocation," he says. "It was plated up about three inches. I'd one screw through the ankle taken out a few months ago and there's another which I think will come out next year. But I'm probably stronger than I've ever been.

"It will take a few matches to regain confidence in my ankle but I'm looking forward to playing with Leinster, who have a strong young squad. Optimistically, I hope to be back late August."

Leinster's first match takes place in Donnybrook on Friday August 17th against Glasgow in the Celtic League before the interprovincial series begins the following week against Connacht. The match against Ulster in Donnybrook is the second of the series.

"Sure, I saw the injury as a completely missed chance," says the 29-year-old. "The Lions comes up only once every four years so that's a bigger missed opportunity than the Six Nations.

"But I suppose I've been lucky with injuries compared, say, to someone like Jeremy Davidson who has had lots of them. He gets lots of them and I get one big one."