Six Nations / Interview with Peter Stringer: Opinions on Irish scrumhalf Peter Stringer come four-a-penny.

Playing for UCC, he was too small for the modern game. With him UCC won the Student European Cup final and soon afterwards he was drafted into the Ireland team.

With Ireland he didn't snipe forward enough, yet on Saturday he will
wear the Irish shirt for the 45th time. Stringer is Ireland's most capped, too-small scrumhalf, who can't break the gain line.

He will probably reach 50 caps before the year is out. He can feel secure. It’s the caps, stupid.

Durable, gutsy, aggressive and supplier of a trademark ankle-tap tackle – obvious qualities Stringer brings to a match and when he looks behind him in the queue for his shirt, there just aren't many there. Since playing against Wales in the Six Nations Championship in 2001 he has been ever-present as first pick with the exception of four games. For those he was rested.
"Yeah, people have their opinions on what I should be doing," he says. "But the people I listen to most are the coaches and the people involved in the
squad. I'm always trying to develop every aspect of my game. Ask any player and they'll never say they are complete. They'll say 'I've got to work on this or that aspect of my game'.
"First and foremost I've to get to a ruck quickly and get the ball away to give the lads on the outside that little yard of space. I feel I've done that quite well in the last few years. If a gap is there, I feel that's an option for
me. I do work a lot on short speed 10-20 metres. I wouldn't be the quickest on the squad but I'd be up there with the top few."
Stringer occupies the patch of land just behind the flash zone. Sometimes he's sucked in but his job is more the postman than the grunt. Unlike second rows or props, much of whose work is done with the blinds down,
Stringer's position is done in the spotlight. He's an easy target.
"I don't go into a game thinking a whole lot of people are going to be thinking of it in that light. I go into the game thinking I'm going to hit every pass on the button. I'm disappointed if I don't. There are things that can
affect it. The last game against England at ruck times, you'd have forwards coming through a lot of the time and it wasn't clean (ball). You try to adjust as muchas you can. It's something I want to improve on each game. Last week I found it pretty difficult, pretty hard to judge in the wind."
As a seven-year-old, Stringer always found himself in goals as it was soccer as much as rugby that kept him from trouble.
When teams were drawn, he found himself between the sticks, diving at people's feet. His friends remind him of the birthday parties. Stringer in goals
around the striker's ankle. They say his three classic ankle taps – for Munster against Viadana and for Ireland on Dan Luger and Jason Robinson – can be traced back to fields in Cork.
"You don't practice it. It's not something where you let people run past you and try and practice at training. A lot of scrumhalves sweep behind and try to be a second line of cover. Luger was ahead and you wouldn't have a
hope of making a proper tackle on him. It's effective because the
guy who is running doesn't expect it and he can't see it.
"The guys who I played with at school tell me I did it a lot. It's just that when I dive everything just seems to slow up and I follow his foot, knock one behind the other. It's a technique I suppose I'm comfortable with."
As Eddie O'Sullivan said on Tuesday, "Everyone becomes an openside flanker after phase one".
No need to tell the scrumhalf.