Johnny Watterson on the high-octane tackling and tackle-breaking that has World Cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio extravagantly praising the Galway man

Wasps coach Warren Gatland has never shirked his feminine side when it comes to Johnny O'Connor. Gatland, from tough New Zealand front-row stock and smitten long ago, has had glazed eyes ever since the ball of aggression from a Galway suburb credibly passed himself as a one man SWAT team, an impact player who comes on from the start. "He gives twice who gives promptly" goes the saying. The open-side flanker has given his all, and promptly, too, to the former Ireland coach.

Wasps back rows Lawrence Dallaglio and Joe Worsley have also been invited in as arbiters of O'Connor's excellence at Causeway Stadium. Their respect earned in a matter of months, it was the England captain's imprimatur that led to the unseemly scramble for O'Connor's nationality details. Before the season closed for him with a ruptured Achilles' tendon in February during a match against Rotherham, the British press had O'Connor figured for a natural Neil Back replacement.

"Don't blame me for that," says Gatland. "I was answering questions put to me. Around that period Johnny was man of the match for us most weeks and they (media) were asking the questions. At that time I'd had no calls from Ireland about how he was going in training or how he was playing."

Last season just after the Achilles popped, a group of friends travelled over to London. O'Connor brought them around and made the introductions; Dallaglio, Worsley, Josh Lewsey, Simon Shaw. Worsley turned to the Galway group and said to Corinthians' Bryan Casburn jnr: "Do you know how good this player is?" The group deferred and guffawed. "He's the biggest ****ing hitter in England," said Worsley.

There are no stories about O'Connor that deviate from his ability to play like a series of controlled detonations around the pitch. A seemingly endless reservoir of instinctive tackling and gain line breaking, O'Connor is consumed by the game but also completely removed from any notions that at under six feet in height, there is a selfless brilliance about they way he performs.

"For me it is the hardness, the desire," says Gatland. "There are players in New Zealand that I can relate to. In Munster as well. Johnny is hungry and is desperate to succeed. He really wants it. I remember when he was at Connacht, an official sat him down and asked him what he would do if he didn't make it.

"Johnny says: 'I have to make it.' 'But if you didn't make it what would you do?' asked the official. 'No,' says Johnny. 'I have to make it.' 'But say you don't. Just say you don't, what would you do?' pressed the official. 'No, no, you don't understand,' insisted Johnny. 'I have to make it.' "

O'Connor arrived into Ballinasloe's Garbally College via Galway Corinthians and "The Bish" (St Joseph's, Galway) when he was 15 years old. By then, says one of his rugby coaches Frank Fahy, he was already a natural open-side flanker. He stayed for two years, won the Connacht Junior Cup with the school and became, at 16, the youngest player to play for the Connacht Schools.

"They'd done a lot of work on him at Corinthians. He was well developed," says Fahy. "My fear for Johnny was the size of the modern game. He was like an Exocet coming at you, totally committed and an unreal influence on that side. I was lucky to get him. First time out watching him I couldn't believe it. You know when you are picking a team and you are trying to fit all the pieces together as a unit? I felt my prayers had been answered."

Corinthians had first call but at 21, O'Connor needed a conduit into the Connacht set-up and Galwegians could offer a better profile. He moved and was soon wearing the first-team jersey. John Casserly was around for those years.

"When he broke into the team, he was our best player for two season," says Casserly. "You wind him up and he's off. He's not the biggest but he more than punches his weight. I think when he went to Wasps, he was able to show a different part of his game. Working with players like Dallaglio and playing the attacking, flowing game allows you concentrate on your own game."

Barry Gavin, captain at Galwegians for three years and a player who shouldered back-row responsibilities with O'Connor, remembers a humble player, entirely devoid of assumptions or ego.

"One of the most commendable things is that he never came with an arrogance even though he'd the obvious ability to get into the team. But if you were to ask me his best quality, the thing that stands out, I'd have to give you two. In defence, he'd always make the gain line tackle. He lifts people around the place. And with the ball in hand he has the ability to break the first tackle and really pump his legs to make the extra few yards."

There has to be a flip side to his lack of cautious scheduling when he hits the pitch. With O'Connor, it's his off-court marriage to the gym and training, some of it quirkily unapproved by science. The decision to take a dip in freezing Galway Bay last week to ease a sore knee can only add to the O'Connor legend that he is the embodiment of Connemara marble. Possibly borne out of self-effacement and self-questioning, the 24-year-old is as driven to succeed as much as he is abjectly unassuming. During his month's rehabilitation, O'Connor and his strewn crutches were as common a sight in the Wasps weights room as when he was fit and playing.

"In a strange way the injury was good long term because he's been able to do a lot of work in the gym," says Gatland. "I think he's actually gotten stronger."

It has not been the first serious injury from which the Galwegian has had to rebound. When he was 19-years-old, he dislocated a shoulder, which required a reconstruction operation. He put his head down and endured the tedium of slow recovery and was rewarded with a place on the Ireland A side under Gatland.

A broken arm playing for the shadow national side provided a second knock-back and it took the guts of two years before he was at his rampaging best again.

His latest trial has eaten nine months out of his career.

It's that given that O'Connor will come back to a team as strong as when he left which allows the Wasps coach to permit his flanker drift away for a week to rest. As often as is possible, O'Connor will be found in Galway, hanging out with his friends but far from the pub culture.

Last week Gatland cut him loose for Wasps' European Cup game against Italian side Calvisano. Again he crossed the Shannon.

"Johnny is shy," says Casburn jnr. "He's always knocking himself down. You know, he would never say that he thought that he played a great game when everyone knew he did. I went for lunch with him last Friday (week) and he told me he had been expecting to be going back to Wasps on the Wednesday. He never even considered that he would get the call-up from Eddie O'Sullivan. So he'd to fly back to his place in London on the Saturday to get his boots and gear for the Irish squad session.

"No matter what people say to him, he's completely unassuming, didn't think he would get into the final 22."

Johnny O'Concrete they call him at Wasps. It didn't take long. Once O'Connor had positioned himself on the top of the list of the weekly match statistics for tackle counts and yardage and ball carrying, they became his property to keep. Having recovered from the Achilles injury remarkably well, interest turns now to how he will match up, if selected, against a South African side seeking their first tour grand slam in 43 years (wins over Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England).

There has been some luck involved in him finding himself in this position. But its provenance can be found in O'Connor's work ethic. He'll take whatever foothold on the ladder that is offered. After all, it's the man in possession the others have to shift. Kieron Dawson and Keith Gleeson are both unavailable because of injury while David Wallace is out of favourat Munster. Denis Leamy, who is keeping the former Lion on the bench, has enough on his track record to make a strong case. But few will begrudge O'Connor the first bite if it arrives.

A debut cap, although it may mean he will miss more Wasps matches than Gatland would care for, could also help his cause in London. His club contract ends at the close of season.

"We've two international back rows at Wasps and they rate Johnny incredibly highly ('who the **** was that in my face all day?' Dallaglio was said to have demanded the first time he played against O'Connor'). Before he got injured I went to Lawrence and asked him what he thought about the seven position," says Gatland.

"We'd Paul Volley and Johnny at that stage. Lawrence turned to me and said 'you've only got one choice, don't you?' Volley, rated the best open-side flanker in England not to be capped by Clive Woodward, has since left the club for Castres on a two-year contract.

O'Connor believers say Eddie O'Sullivan has been slow on the pick up. But injury to the player and an Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves' cave full of quality back row players would seem to make his decision more judicious than slack. Lauded Springbok flanker Schalk Burger represents a particular challenge. But you get the feeling that's all O'Connor ever wants.