Ireland tour of Argentina: Gerry Thornleymeets the 21-year-old former schools javelin champion with a hard edge on the rugby field

There are big, raw natural talents, and then there's Stephen Ferris. He's 6ft 4in, 17st 4lbs and one of the quickest players in the Ulster squad, and while he may be laid back to the point of prostrate off the pitch, on it he tears into the physical exchanges with relish. Only 21, he could be the template for the modern day backrower, and though not of rugby stock, he was born to play rugby.

Then again, he could probably have played anything. One day as a 16-year-old, inspired by a girl he liked who threw the javelin, he decided to try his hand at the sport.

"I was useless at it, hurt my shoulder and everything."

Vicky, who is now going out with a friend of his from Dungannon, Stuart Lamb, gave him a few pointers and two weeks later he was throwing the javelin 50 metres.

His schoolmaster and rugby coach Barney McGonigle - who also coached the Irish Schools rugby team - encouraged Ferris to try his luck at the district school trials. On the day he confesses to having "a bit of a hangover", he had no spikes, it was raining and he was slipping.

"I'd done the 400 for a bit of a laugh and decided 'I'm not doing that javelin thing', but my mum, who was there, said 'no, go on and do it'. I threw it twice, was slipping all over the place, and I came third. That qualified me for the Ulster championships, so I got a pair of spikes and got my head on."

Three weeks later he won the Ulster Schools' championship with a throw of 51.29 metres in the Antrim Forum. "It was funny, because they only had a 50 metres measuring tape."

Ferris qualified for the Irish Schools championships in Tullamore. He won it with his second throw of three.

In practice, Ferris had thrown 60 metres and was invited down to Lisburn Athletics Club, but by then he had tasted success with the Ulster Youths under Allen Clarke, who won the interpros, and played for the Irish Youths in the Four Nations.

Ferris is the first international to emerge from Friends' School Lisburn. "I didn't even pick up a rugby ball for a couple of years in school, just arsed about, dossed about, played a bit here and there, went to practice maybe twice a month, but then we had a good medallion side (under-15s) in school, and I sort of picked it up a bit."

They reached the semi-finals of the shield, and McGonigle promoted him to the schools senior side the next year, at 16, for a couple of campaigns. "I caught the bug, but I had no interest in staying on at school, at keeping on my studying; I just wanted to get out of there and start working. But my mum roped me into going to college and I studied leisure and recreation, and that's when Allen Clarke gave me a ring and asked me on to a couple of Ulster Youths' trials."

McGonigle and Clarke deserve much of the credit for helping to fast-track Ferris's rugby career, as from there he progressed to the Irish Youths, under-21s and Ulster academy. Having been part of an all-conquering Portadown under-18 side for two seasons, as important as the Ulster Academy in his rapid rise were a couple of seasons of AIL rugby with Dungannon under Jeremy Davidson. From Maghaberry, and now living with his family in Moyra, both near Lisburn, the move to Dungannon at the behest of the Academy was also convenient.

"As soon as I went to Dungannon I was playing against men, and the Academy helped me so well to bulk up. It was good playing against men, all the dirt and stuff, just to harden you up. And Jeremy is quite hard core as a coach, mauling, tackling, rucking."

He'd left Portadown weighing 92 kilos, and three years later, he's 110kg. With the increased bulk, his confidence too has grown.

He gives much of the credit to his conditioning coaches in the Ulster academy and senior squads, Robert Kennedy and Phil Morrow, "who worked with me the whole way through the Academy. They gave me the Olympic technique to lift properly. It's all well and good having the power to lift it, but it's doing it right, that's when you can really start putting on the weight."

The quickest forward in Ulster, ask him how quick he is in the squad and he quips "first", before admitting Trimby (Andrew Trimble), Tommy (Bowe) and maybe Paul Steinmetz are quicker. "Definitely top five."

Last season, he began breaking into the Ulster team while on a development contract, and having made a few appearances as a replacement, made his first start in the Heineken European Cup match at home to Biarritz in January 2006.

Three months into this season, his first as a professional, Eddie O'Sullivan gave him his debut against the Pacific Islands at number seven in the ultra-competitive backrow area. That was at openside, where he'd also managed to elbow his way into the Ulster team ahead of Neil McMillan and Kieron Dawson. Though confined to just two games as an eight for Ulster at the start of the season, this is the position he cut his teeth in.

A preference for anywhere in the backrow? "It changes every week. It depends on whether I have a good game," he laughs, before thinking about it for a while. "I dunno. I'll tell you after this game."

At a push, he goes for six or eight as he's more likely to have the ball in his hands.

"I just love running at people. You get such a buzz off it. When you run over the top of somebody, and offload or something, and we score, there's no better feeling in the world. You go back to the half-way, thinking 'I feel good'. And that's what it's about, getting that buzz, and every game you go searching for it, like smashing someone in a tackle or in a ruck and just look them in the eyes. And getting a win obviously, there's no better feeling."

Hungry for improvement, he is eager to absorb every lesson in this company. "Ulster is good but this is that wee step up I need, to be in an environment that keeps me progressing. Areas of my game that I need to work on? Probably my lineout, 'cos I don't get used an awful lot at Ulster in the lineout and down here I would get used quite a bit more, work on my defence and communication - and not be afraid to talk up just 'cos I'm young.

"And score a few more tries," he concludes with a chuckle. He has just two for Ulster to date.

His first cap blew him away. "It was crazy. Completely unbelievable," he recalls, almost still in wonderment. "The last international at Lansdowne, and you're a part of it. I was just happy to be in the Irish set-up for that whole autumn. I knew I'd played well the week before for the A team against Australia, I'd done everything to give myself every opportunity. Eddie read out the team and the buzz going through me was unbelievable.

"When I got to the stadium I was quite calm, and when the whistle went I was happy to get stuck in. But it was a tough pace to the game, I'd never experienced anything like it before, even compared to the Heineken Cup.

"Off turnover ball the Pacific Islands could run the length of the pitch, and they did three times. And playing seven, I learned a lot. Their number seven was a good cheater, and I learned a few things off him that I can maybe use in a few games. But it was just an honour to play in front of that crowd. I'd never even played in front of a crowd that big before."

This gave him a taste for more. "More, more and more," he says.

He broke his thumb against Leinster the following week, sidelining him for seven weeks. So comes his chance to stake a World Cup place. If O'Sullivan opts for a 16-14 split, and with that five backrowers, a big game today will underline his versatility.

"I know I'm young. What I'm trying to do is gather up experience for setting my sights for the next one (New Zealand 2011). But if Eddie thinks I'm good enough to be put in the squad, then I'll do and give everything I can, just go flat out. I always do anyway.

"I think I'm good enough, but I think I need to improve a bit. But as I say, I want to be starting for Ireland in four years' time.

"That's my main goal, to be starting in the next one."