Interview with Doug Howlett:The flying Kiwi gives every impression of being an inspired acquisition, not least because he has bought with a will into the Munster ethos, writes Gerry Thornley

Two weeks with them and he's already willing to die for them. Pitched into the furnace that was Clermont away and Wasps at home, he threw himself into the fray with typical gusto. Talk about hitting the ground running. The feeling always was that in Doug Howlett, Munster had struck Kiwi gold, and the impression has been quickly confirmed.

He's still coming to terms with his new environs, and attempts by team-mates to sidetrack him from our meeting place in the plush surrounds of the Maryborough House Hotel in Cork to Mitchelstown had almost worked. Brian Carney is the likeliest culprit on a shortlist also comprising his car companions Frankie Sheahan and Anthony Horgan. Howlett will need his wits about him.

Surprisingly, he nonetheless retains a degree of anonymity, even in Cork. A kid and his mother walk past the tracksuited figure chatting across a table with notepads and dictaphone, the mum deducing, "He must be a soccer player."

Anything but. All-time record try-scorer he may be, but team-mates talk of a modest, unassuming and even self-deprecating new "star" in their midst, one who happily engages supporters and signs a multitude of autographs. Indeed, one feared the biggest risk to his well-being after the Clermont game was writer's cramp.

He's clearly quickly bought into the Munster ethos, though starting off with two season-defining games didn't leave him much choice. Munster's progress in the Heineken European Cup was kind off important.

"That's right, and I felt that in the preparation for those two games," he says. "They were intense weeks and there was a lot on the line. Games like that are why I play. To be thrown into that environment, it's almost a sink or swim, especially coming into a new team. We're still feeling each other out as such. I was quite happy to come through the games with reasonably steady performances. I'm the type of bloke that will chuck myself into it anyway, and that's why I'm here."

The intensity, he says, is "difficult to compare" with that of, say, an All Blacks match or a Super 14 game.

"The pressures on me have always been put there by myself to perform and to play, but the added pressures in these two games were fitting into the environment, fitting into the team and just doing my job, really. That was the major focus as opposed to the outcomes, such as scoring tries and those sort of things, which hopefully will happen at some stage."

No doubt they will, as astonishing record returns of 49 tries in 62 Tests for the All Blacks (five of them in six wins out of six against Ireland) and 59 in 104 Super 12/14 games testify. But there's even more to his game than his famed finishing power, for he's an excellent defender with a sharp brain and positional sense, who makes good decisions in defence and can play just as effectively at fullback where, perhaps, he may well end up.

For all Munster's qualities, a world-class cutting edge has not been uppermost among them. Munster and Christian Cullen, the previous All Blacks' record try scorer, were unlucky, but touch wood, Howlett looks a smashing bit of business.

He talks enthusiastically about Munster's mix of superb forwards and new-found cutting edge in the backs - David Wallace combining the two - and has been quickly impressed by their ability to adapt to the utterly contrasting conditions presented by those two European Cup games.

"That was a bit of an eye-opener for me - especially that Clermont game straight away. It shows me we can play that expansive way but, traditionally, a forward pack like we have is not a bad starting point."

He's learning plenty about his new team-mates along the way, discovering, to his surprise, that John O'Sullivan attended his own school Auckland Grammar as part of an exchange and that O'Sullivan's elder brother was in Howlett's year at the same school while Tony Buckley attended "the school across the road".

Though coming from more of a Rugby League-orientated family, Howlett was destined by attending Auckland Grammar to continue playing the 15-a-side code.

HE BEGAN PLAYING - like most young Kiwis, barefoot and across the pitch - at the age of five with with his local club, Roskill Districts in Mount Roskill, where he grew up, in central Auckland.

His dad, Simon, is "a chippie - a property developer and builder" and sports enthusiast who, along with his mam, Phoebe, gave him every encouragement to pursue his twin sports of rugby union and athletics.

He describes growing up in Mount Roskill with his elder brother, Philip, and a younger sister, Lee-Anne, as enjoyable.

"I have fond memories of growing up. Like most Kiwis I grew up kicking a football around. It was based on a lot of outdoor sports with the long summers, watching the All Blacks. We were quite a tight family unit and continue to be so."

His dad introduced young Doug to rugby and athletics, taking him to the track, timing his son on his stopwatch, taking him to training and matches, giving a helping hand to the coaches.

"They've been a huge part of what I've become. My father still comes down to the track and holds a stopwatch when I'm running, or passes me the football. It's been satisfying for both of us really, and my family knows how hard we've worked for it."

As for hands-on, formative influences, as well as his father and brother there was Semi Pulu, whom he describes as mentor, trainer

and uncle. Running is probably the best sport a young rugby player could fill his summers with. Howlett concurs, and testimony to his sprinting ability is that as a schoolboy he won national titles at 100m and 100m hurdles.

John Kirwan and - though it might sound heretical for a Kiwi to admit it - David Campese were his boyhood heroes, though rugby was "just fun with my mates . . . I just enjoyed playing. It was only late in secondary school that it starting getting serious."

Breaking into the New Zealand Schools team at 16 was a sign of things to come.

"Those are the early steps, pulling on a silver fern of any sort at second schools. Then you think, 'jeez, there could be a chance here'. And from there on there's a progression of age-grade teams that you make towards the All Blacks. That's when you start thinking of it seriously.

"Early on you think 'I'd love to do the haka, I'd love to be an All Black.' But once you pull on a New Zealand secondary schools jersey it starts becoming more of a reality."

In his last year at Auckland Grammar, aged 18, he played his first game for the Auckland provincial side, when Graham Henry was the coach, alongside Eroni Clarke, Carlos Spencer and Adrian Cashmore.

You put it to him, as a fan, that it must have been fun to play alongside Spencer, and he responds with the knowing smile of a player and team mate: "Totally unpredictable, yes, but it certainly kept you on your toes. You learned to expect the ball from whatever angle and from anywhere, really.

"But yeah, a fantastic player to create time and space for his outsides. He was a real master at that."

Because of the presence at Auckland of Joeli Vidiri, Jonah Lomu and several other established wingers, Howlett started his Super 12/14 career when drafted into the Otago Highlanders, the year after he completed school in 1997, playing the next year with the Hurricanes in 1998.

"I played alongside Christian Cullen and Tana Umaga, and they were another team that liked to throw the ball around. I learned a hell of a lot in those two years."

Howlett's first cap for the All Blacks came in 2000 at the age of 21 against Tonga in Albany, just outside Auckland: "It's a special moment. It's an emotional week, going through the whole process.

"I wasn't starting, I was on the bench, but I'd been singing the anthem and doing the haka. It's quite a lot for a young player to go through."

Howlett came on at half-time as a replacement for Cullen: "Just that moment when Wayne Smith said, 'You're on'. That's when the heart really started racing and you knew you were going to be an All Black."

New Zealand don't have royalty, but to be an All Black appears the closest equivalent.

"It's just the high standard that's been set before us. You're aware of it and you just don't want to let that down. In that though, you don't want to be overwhelmed by what's been there before you. You want to add to the jersey; you want to leave a little bit of yourself there. Looking back now, I feel I have. I was quite happy with my All Black career.

"Highs? It's hard to go past your first run-out as an All Black. That's been one of the most memorable moments of my life. And there was the Super 12 championship in 2003. There's been NPC championships and the Tri-Nations. They're the trophies that you play for, but it's the way we achieved them that's more satisfying for me as opposed to a trophy."

TAKE 2003 as a case in point. Under the curiously taciturn public figure of John Mitchell, the All Blacks played fantasy rugby, albeit losing the World Cup semi-final in Australia, but winning a dozen of 14 matches and scoring over 90 tries.

"It was a real expansive game. It was Joe Rokocoko and myself on the wings and Mils (Muliaina) at fullback. Before that season the record for an All Black in one season was 12. I think I got 14 and Joe got 17 tries. As wingers that said a huge amount about the team really and the way we went about the game. It was an expansive game and there was a real unselfishness about it.

"It all came unstuck with that one game against Australia but it shouldn't be forgotten how we played that season."

How a game can swing. A different TMO might well have awarded Muliaina an early try, but instead, within minutes Stirling Mortlock picked off a long, skip pass by Spencer and the rest is history.

"Tell me about it. It's happened too many times in my career," he sighs with a wide but weary smile. "We've had close games - John Eales kicking goals to win Bledisloes off us, and again France in the last (World Cup) quarter-final. But that's the wonderful thing about rugby: you win some and you lose some."

In 62 Tests he experienced just 10 defeats, five of them to Australia.

As for last October's quarter-final defeat to France in Cardiff, it still seems bizarre that players with the experience of Howlett and Mauger were left out of the 22 and powerless in the stands when, once Dan Carter went off, there was a callowness in the backline that saw them only once attempt a drop-goal, as they resorted to a pick-and-go game that had been anathema to them throughout the previous four years or more.

"Yeah," says Howlett. "Yeah. It's tough, but what's done is done. As it was, there wasn't much personally I could do about it. It was just a shame, because that was my last stab at a World Cup and the same for a lot of the other guys."

By then he'd resolved to take up a new challenge with Munster. His wife, Monique, and seven-month-old son, Charles, are the dominant themes in his life away from rugby now.

"He (Charles) is part of the move here, to try and spend some time with my family, because I've given so much time to rugby."

He admits that like most young professional sportsmen he could be selfish and obsessive, but that Monique and young Charles has given him a new perspective. Save for helping out his dad on building sites occasionally, there'd been few other demands on him beforehand.

Under the heading "anything to get away from footie" he lists music, reading and films.

"Lenny Kravitz has always been a favourite of mine. But I range from rock to a lot of old music, 60s and 70s, a little bit of Elvis. Anything going, really.

"What am I reading at the moment? Rigged, by Ben Mazarick. Just easy reading, a bit of escapism . . . I don't like to get too deep into my reading."

Going to the pictures has given way to DVDs with the advent of young Charles.

"Life is Beautiful is probably top of my list. It's an Italian movie, a wonderful movie. That's probably my favourite movie of all time, and a lovely storyline as well. And The Shawshank Redemption.

"A programme I've been watching on television lately is Bear Grylls. He's chucked into the wild and has to survive on his own. That's on Discovery at the moment and I've just cottoned onto it while I've been up here.

À LA GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI, citing a desire to "spend more time with my family" might not suggest a desire to give 100 per cent to his new sporting cause, but lest anyone have concerns along those lines Howlett, like the Italian, puts this into perspective.

Not alone was there the promotional work and demands of being an All Black in addition to paying with Auckland and Blues, but the combined travel obligations and time away from home - even while in New Zealand - were not that conducive to having a family life.

"When you've done it for 10 years, it's time for a change and I wanted to move along while I was playing well," he says.

An English-speaking country, as distinct from France, was top of the Howlett's list, "for Monique, not knowing anyone, and ease of integration. Then we sat down and looked at some of the clubs. I've always liked the look of Munster; I just like the likeness to the All Blacks in that they're a smaller union or area competing on a big scale. You could say they fight above their weight with the resources they have.

"At this stage I'd never say never, but I don't see me going back and playing for the All Blacks, but next on the list - I've always been goal-orientated - as a World Cup has been ruled out, a Heineken Cup and a Magners League; they're the next two big things that I can achieve.

"Neither of those I've done before or been involved with, and with the Munster team I feel I've got a good opportunity of achieving those goals."

That would do nicely.

Factfile - Doug Howlett

Born:Sept 24th, 1978 (Auckland, NZ)

Height:1.85cm (6ft 1in)

Weight:89kg (14st)

New Zealand schools:1994-96

New Zealand Under-21:1997-99

Province:Auckland, 1976-2007

Super 14:Otago Highlanders (1997) Wellington Hurricanes (1998) Auckland Blues (1999-2007)

Super 14 appearances:104

Tries:59 (a record)

All Blacks:2000-2007

Tests:62

Tries:49 (a record)