Interview: Gerry Thornley talks to the Ireland prop who returns to South Africa as a key player for Ireland six years after his first call-up to the squad.

Six years ago, John Hayes was a big, raw, late developing 24-year-old prop-cum-lock who had just helped Shannon to the AIL title. The following Tuesday he saw his name listed amongst the Ireland squad for their seven-match tour to South Africa on teletext. If it was something of a bolt from the blue for the rest of us, so it was for Hayes as well.

"I even rang (Anthony) Foley straight away. 'Is that possible? Is it me? Is there another J Hayes, a back, from some other club?' I couldn't believe it, but I was just delighted to get in."

Hayes readily concedes he was the fifth choice of five props. "But if I had been the eighth choice of eight I would have been happy." To start one match and appear as a replacement in three others was a bonus.

It was the start of an investment in him by Warren Gatland and others which is reaping a huge dividend.

Prior to the first game against Poland in 1998, Hayes called up to Donal Lenihan's room to be handed his first Irish jersey. "I'll never forget it. It was the first time ever I'd got a green jersey of any kind. I remember just looking at. Something else. Almost as close as the first cap."

He hadn't even played a whole season at prop at that juncture, having played occasionally for Shannon in the second row, and had been working on the family farm right up to the week before departure. He had never done weights, had only played half a game for Munster and didn't get a professional contract until the following season. That tour was a complete eye-opener for Hayes.

"I'd never been in an environment like that before. Day in, day out, it was rugby."

From being a low-mileage, late developing sort, Hayes has crammed in 44 caps since making his debut in that rejuvenating win over Scotland in 2000. He returns to South Africa six years later as an established and integral part of the Irish pack.

From Shannon, through Munster and up to Ireland, the most enduring influence on him as been Niall O'Donovan.

"Players have helped me along like (Keith) Woody, John Langford (who says Hayes's exceptional lifting extended his career by a year or two), Peter Clohessy and Mick Galwey, and other coaches such as (Mike) Fordie, even now, working on my defence, but Niallo has guided me the whole way."

Hayes has carried a heavy load in the last few seasons, though he says: "I have and I haven't. I've played a lot of Test matches and European Cup matches but they're the games everyone wants to play. You never tire of playing those."

You'd hope he's very well paid, and if so the IRFU could do worse than celebrate his worth. Quite why there's such a dearth of props coming through is a mystery to him.

"I think it's a great position to play. Maybe it's not the flashiest position on the pitch, and they all want to be backs or back rowers, but it's an unbelievably important position.

"Sometimes if the game is close, and maybe it's windy or wet, it's just non-stop action, and it's brilliant. You're all stuck together and it's ruck, maul or scrum after another."

The front rowers withstand the heaviest toll in terms of sheer physical contact, and this Saturday is a case in point when, for the first time, he squares up to Os du Randt. A massive man and a massive name.

"He came on the scene in the '95 World Cup, and he was huge then. He was the first new-age prop, a big ball carrier, good around the field and a good scrummager. He really is one of the best props in the world.

"He'd be an experienced campaigner and he'll be targeting the scrum to re-establish himself because he's been out of the international scene with injury for a while now. It's going to be a big challenge."

Assuredly, the understatement of the week.