NOT SO long ago, the Leinster interprovincial party were staying in a Limerick hotel. Malcolm O'Kelly, a seemingly unassuming, newish member of the under 20 party was sleeping peacefully when a supposed senior, a little worse for wear, barged in unintentionally. O'Kelly told him in no uncertain terms to leave.

"Rank meant nothing," recalls the unfortunate intruder. "He called it as it was."

Appearances can be misleading with O'Kelly. At 6' 8", slightly boyish looking, slightly shy and slightly stubbled, you could almost mistake the 22 year old lock for being a bit goofy. Spend some time in his company and you might even think him laid back to the point of prostrate, perhaps lacking ambition and that hard edged streak rugby players need. As the story above outlines, he is anything but.

Though a move to professionalism with London Irish has had its hiccups, Leinster players tell of an even more assertive nature this year. Indeed, it was noticeable when Leinster played Leicester how much line out ball was thrown to O'Kelly, jumping at number four, even on their own line, with the one time bulwark Neil Francis dragging Martin Johnson to the front of the line as a decoy. O'Kelly partners Francis in Leinster's second row away to the Scottish Borders today as an equal.

"The assertiveness, self confidence and ambition, which has always been there, has progressed in accordance with his development as a player. He's an upwardly mobile, bright, sound young man with a nice, dry wit, sometimes self deprecating, who clearly knows what he wants.

A serious talent, there seems no limit to a career graph that has risen in tandem with his height. If his time for the Irish national team doesn't come next month against Western Samoa and/or Australia, then it will come soon after. It's a matter of when rather than if.

In almost every sense, O'Kelly's timing has "been perfect. There couldn't have been a better era for a richly talented, all round 6' 8" second row forward to arrive on the scene. Some of his predecessors must be green with envy. Some of the new cross channel expatriates talk of the boredom factor, but O'Kelly, who says he is entertained by quite silly things", has a high threshold.

With innate ballplaying abilities and mobility, he is also ideal for the fast changing modern game. Jim Glennon, the Leinster manager, observes: "Second row forwards have been looked at as an extension of the front row with the new laws. The reality is that they are now an extension of the backrow.

"Malcolm fits the description perfectly. The days of a scrumagging second row with spring and step are gone now. With the new line out laws regarding lifting, the spring and the step isn't the principle requirement. Scrumagging certainly is but mobility and a back row forward's ability to play ball is a major advantage on the second row. Malcolm gives that."

Another striking observation about O'Kelly is his improved upper body physique and presence in the line out. Though not a noted hard man, he says: "I'm getting harder. I think that's what I really need to do if I want to get anywhere now. I feel as confident as any player now, even the English players. A lot of the talk about players there is hype, but there's some tough guys there that make the difference. So I'm trying to get a little bit tougher now. If somebody hits you, give him a hit back. I'm getting big now so I know how to take care of myself."

He doesn't strike one as particularly intense. "I'm intense when I need to be. When I play my matches, it's a different me. You can't really go onto the pitch, Dooosh! (and he pretends to be punched in the face). `Oh, it's your ball, is it?' You can't do that. So I take out all my frustration on the pitch."

Compared to last year, Glennon has seen that O'Kelly "has had far less difficulty in the line out. He's not being messed about. He has learned an awful lot. He's 22 and for a guy of his age he has the world at his feet".

A cursory study of O'Kelly's graph is also a compliment to Irish rugby's structures. The ball handling skills, according to himself, were honed in under 11 mini rugby with DLSP.

From there he advanced to the full game at under 13s with Templeogue College. At first a fringe flanker on their Junior Cup side, he progressed to a try scoring number eight before being converted to a second row at St Mary's, "the minute I got there".

He thanks Victor O'Connor and the under 19 coaching staff at Templeville Road for making him into a real rugby player. "I knew how to play the game, sort of, but I didn't really, y'know. I knew the basics in Templeogue, like how to tackle some one, kind of how to scrummage. I could jump in the line out but (at Mary's) we learnt a lot of little things, where you should be at a certain position or where your feet should be in the scrum or how somebody should lift you."

Profession came smoothly and steadily. All the while, over tour years, he was acquiring a degree in civil engineering at Trinity College. O'Kelly quickly advanced to the St Mary's senior team after his stint with the under 19s, winning caps for Leinster against Northern Transvaal, for the Irish students and the Irish in his first senior season.

Credit too, to three years of the IRFU's foundation scheme for talented young players under the guidance of Stephen Aboud, other development officers and Ray Southam. "They set up weights for us and gave us programmes, brought us in, told us a few things about our game, goal setting, mental preparation, all that kind of stuff that you wouldn't think of yourself; decision making in a match, a lot of ball skills. Great experience."

A keen worker, O'Kelly was soon being presented with another chance for self advancement by overtures from London Irish. There remained his engineering finals, and a private career in conflict with professional rugby. There was the possibility of combining Oxford with London Irish, but then came professionalism and an improved offer from Clive Woodward at Sunbury.

"I agreed almost on the spur of the moment. Clive is a very persuasive talker," recalls O'Kelly. "I saw that (Gabriel) Fulch(er) and Jeremy (Davidson) were already over there, which didn't seem to leave much room for another second row. But Clive outlined his plans for the team and he wouldn't offer me a contract if he wanted me to play seconds, which was probably," he pauses, smiling, before concluding "a bit of a lie. But gullible Mal swallowed it anyway."

It is already abundantly clear that relations between some of the new London Irish players (especially the renegade five who absconded for European Cup duty with their provinces) and Woodward became strained.

Trouble started when O'Kelly was omitted after the third Courage League game, a heavy defeat to Harlequins, though he felt aggrieved at the "lack of communication" which preceded it and his belief that his proposed recall against Bath was rescinded. (His embarrassment was not alleviated by the fact that he had invited his parents over for the game).

Thus when it came to the crunch, he had no problem about rescinding his earlier commitment to remaining with London Irish for the European Conference. O'Kelly holds his hands up and says the players were at least partly to blame, changing their minds first one way and then the other.

However, his and Victor Costello's appearance for the London Irish seconds last Saturday, and Woodward's peace offering in The Title last Sunday, seems to have restored some harmony. They will travel on to London on Sunday, in preparation for the Courage League game against Leicester next Wednesday, though O'Kelly doubts he will be picked, none of which will do anything for his immediate international ambitions.

"There's no way I'll play in either of those games I think," admits O'Kelly of Ireland's forthcoming games against Western Samoa and Australia. "I am a bit of a realist. I'm sure I'd do well enough but I just can't see myself being selected for those two games.

"I would hope that they would blood me this year. Maybe it could be one of those two games. I'm not going to rule myself out, like. There's still a few games to impress yet."

Ambitious? "I'm ambitious but I'm not eager to rush into it. I want to be ready. I want to have myself fit and prepared enough. I hope now that it will come this year. I definitely wouldn't have been ready for it last year because it's another step up and I'd say it's a huge step up. I'm sure I'd be capable of doing it, but I'll wait my time. My time will come."

That's for sure. Everybody knows it, and he knows it.