Gerry Thornley talks to Reggie Corrigan who last played for Ireland, against the Pumas, in 1999.

Lens on that fateful October night in the 1999 World Cup was no place for an Irish Test career to end. Most have since had the chance to exorcise the memory by playing again for Ireland but Reggie Corrigan has had over two and a half years to stew on it. And there was only going to be one way to rid the after-taste.

Admittedly, it's unfortunate that for some such as Conor O'Shea and Tom Tierney, the only postcript has been the ensuing hammering in Twickenham. Of those who took part in that devastating World Cup quarter-final play-off defeat by the Pumas only Matt Mostyn and Corrigan have never since pulled on an Irish jersey. Corrigan agrees it would have left a sour taste if Lens had been his farewell.

"That's why I did make a conscious decision, even though it wasn't down to me, that I was going to train harder and make the effort to get back onto the team, because I didn't want that to be my farewell to Irish rugby, let's say. I wanted to give it a go and play in games that would have nicer memories than that particular one. That was devastating, that one. It took a lot of hard work and a bit of patience to actually get there."

He returns having played the best season of his life with Leinster. The rangy 6ft 2in, one-time lock has always been a striking athlete and Ireland have possibly never played two taller props in tandem, as will be the case this Saturday.

It's hard to think of him being a more effective target runner than this season and the responsibility of captaining Leinster and Ireland A seems to have brought more out of him as a player as well as a leader. A genuinely good bloke, he deserves a change in luck.

More sanguine nowadays, he's quick to reject the idea that he had been made a scapegoat after Lens. "Not at all. I wasn't playing well enough, if the truth be told.

"I think really last season with Leinster and this season has revamped my game. The game has sort of changed to the way I like to play it. The captaincy of Leinster has helped me as well. It's pretty obvious since coming in, Matt Williams has changed the way the game has been played in Leinster. For guys like me that's made a big difference and it's improved my game.

"I think the captaincy has also helped my game. It just seems to have thrown me in at the deep end and you've no choice but to do it. It was still always going to be a case of waiting for the Claw (Peter Clohessy) to retire. But he's gone now so I'm just going to have to try to have a go at it."

Williams, whenever he heard the news of Reggie's restoration, will have been entitled to feel a sense of satisfaction, as can the rest of the Leinster management, and though a better scrummager now than when he first broke into the Irish team, Corrigan doubts whether he's a better scrummager, per se, now than in 1999.

"It's hard to say if I'm a better prop scrummaging-wise. I've done a lot of work with Roly Meates but I don't really think the scrummaging was a major problem in terms of why I wasn't getting selected. I'd say it was more to do with my around-the-field play and my defensive work, that kind of thing, if there was a reason.

"It's also the case that different selectors just have different ideas of what they want in a player. I mean, I can't tell you why I wasn't getting picked, I just know I wasn't."

Having barred his progress to the number one jersey for the last couple of years, Clohessy can now be something of an inspiration for Corrigan.

"I'm 31 now, but sure that's only a young pup compared to Claw. He's laid the gauntlet down for all the rest of the props. I mean at 31 there's no doubt about it, you really only have been learning your trade for the latter few years of your 20s and early 30s as a prop, so barring injury I'd like to think that, touch wood, there's a few good years left in me yet."

That his return should be here in New Zealand against the All Blacks is appropriate, for Corrigan took the relatively unusual and brave step of cutting his teeth in New Zealand rugby back with Marist St Pat's in Wellington in 1993 when he was 23.

"It

showed me a different way of life," he reflected this week. "The attitude and mindset was totally different. Every man and his dog knows everything about rugby over here. It's a way of life.

"In '93 when I was playing here, we were playing club rugby which was at a very high standard and was pretty good, but it was club rugby. At the time my ambitions were to play for Leinster and then anything beyond that, great. Then when you've reached the position of playing for your country, you want to play against the biggest rugby-playing countries."

Uncapped, he actually sat on the bench in Ireland's 63-15 defeat by the rampant All Blacks of 1997 and jokes: "In the end I was quite happy to stay on the bench, because it was a bit of a drubbing in Dublin we got. So I didn't get my first cap until the next game after that (against Canada) but I always remember sitting there, that day, thinking 'I hope some day that I'll be experienced enough to actually play against them'.

"I played for the As against them in Belfast last year and really enjoyed that. It's a different side, definitely, to the one we played against that day I was on the bench but now to be back here and playing them here, I never really thought that would happen.

"I also remember sitting in Athletic Park watching them play the Lions and thinking 'wouldn't it be great to be out there playing for Ireland and having a go' and here we are now. So yes, it is fantastic to achieve that goal, and please God it'll go some way decent on Saturday."