Last Saturday John Hayes threw away his international L-Plates. Winning his 15th cap against Samoa at Lansdowne Road he had been transformed from the novice to senior figure in Ireland's front row. There was no Peter Clohessy, no Keith Wood. Instead Hayes was the father confessor to Emmet Byrne and Frankie Sheahan.

"I was the senior figure in the front row all of a sudden. It was a bit scary to go completely the opposite way and be the old man; I suppose I'm used to being the junior."

It speaks volumes for the respect in which "The Bull" Hayes is held by the Ireland team management that he is viewed as an essential member of the national team.

Shy and modest, he would be embarrassed by such an assertion but the evidence is there that the Cappamore native is ranked number one in the pecking order of props in this country. For someone who did not take up the game until he was 19 years old, Hayes has displayed an aptitude for quick progression.

Where once it was the Shannon man who used to give way for Munster before the final whistle, it is now his good friend Peter Clohessy that gets first use of the showers at both provincial and international level. In fairness to the latter he is 35 years old and has earned the right to be used a little more sparingly.

Hayes admits that there is now a difference in his attitude to the time he made his debut against Scotland at Lansdowne Road last year.

"The boys look after you when you come in first. It was like that when I came in first with Claw (Peter Clohessy) and Woody (Keith Wood). At some stage you have to stand on your own two feet, add something to the team in a conscious way.

"You do notice the change from being minded by everyone to being able to produce it yourself. In a match you have to be able to do something that someone else can't.

"In a way I liked it last Saturday when more was expected from me as the senior figure caps wise. I don't think I did anything different but I was aware of it.

"I always like to play the 80 minutes. There was a time I used to be taken off, a year or two ago. It's nice to be there at the end."

Hayes is taking nothing for granted and still maintains that he is in the adolescence of his career.

"I still have so much to learn, a long way to go. I don't feel that I have become the mature international. There is still so much scope for development.

"I have played against South Africa, England a couple of weeks ago and now the All Blacks on Saturday. To be considered a senior international worth your salt these are the games you have to have played and be able to measure yourself against the best. I can't wait."

The 28-year-old is better placed than most to appreciate the pressure that those who wear the silver fern of New Zealand are under having spent two years there playing rugby with the Marist club in Invercargill. "I know what the team means to people there. I respect them so much having lived there and played rugby there. They are soccer's equivalent to Brazil.

"They may not be the world champions but there is still that aura about the All Blacks. There's nothing between themselves and Australia as the Tri-Nations showed. Swapping for a New Zealand jersey is something that I would love to do and hopefully will manage that on Saturday."

There will be no more impressive physiques than the 6ft 5in, 181/2 stone All Black left-wing Jonah Lomu although Hayes at six foot four inches and a wafer-thin mint under 20 stone would give him a run for his money.

Well, metaphorically speaking, given Lomu has run a time of 10.6 seconds for the 100 metres.

Hayes laughed: "I'd probably only manage it in 20.6 seconds. To be on the field with him and see how powerful he really is will be something. He pops up all over the place so I could come across him. Mind you I'll be shouting push out, push out. I'd say there'll be plenty of shouts of 'he's yours'."

Joking aside, Hayes has now fit snugly into the expectation of international rugby and Saturday should offer further confirmation of that fact.