LUKE FITZGERALD INTERVIEW: Johnny Wattersontalks to Luke Fitzgerald who is looking forward to the Wasps' clash despite not knowing if he will feature in the starting line-up

SLOPING OFF his chair beside a straight-backed, arms-folded Luke Fitzgerald, a grizzled Malcolm O’Kelly looks out of the window from what would be the floor area of the Bective disco and perhaps sees a past image of a younger, more rangy version of himself playing club rugby with St Mary’s College. Once upon a time he did such things. Fitzgerald has never done anything like what the secondrow did at club level, when he was kicking off his Leinster career in 1997, and Fitzgerald probably never will.

O’Kelly, who will be 35 years old in July of this year, and the thrusting 21-year-old, who has still to settle into a permanent wing, centre or fullback position in the starting side, have at this stage in the week found common ground. Neither player knows yet whether they will be starting in Twickenham on Saturday against London Wasps. Big game, big hopes and the two players are coming at those emotions from completely different directions.

O’Kelly is the venerable war horse with a record 91 Irish caps; Fitzgerald, the game runner, who along with Rob Kearney have added their own brand of ambition and promise to the ribbon of talent across a Leinster backline that oozes ability and potential. If coach Michael Cheika has a dilemma in selection, it is where the proven future of Irish rugby can fit into a provincial team in a week such as this. O’Kelly has seen it all; Fitzgerald a little. But their hearts beat with the same hungry anticipation.

The incendiary thoughts of Wasps and Lions coach Ian McGeechan also linger. His opinion is that potential Lions players will raise their performances against Wasps because every ambitious international knows that he will be watching his own team and those who play against them. The Scottish coach’s theory of “how to get closer to a Lions shirt” is thrown out like a lure to Fitzgerald. He fails to bite.

“I have no idea,” he says, mildly bewildered at such a suggestion, one that is twice removed from his thought processes of this week. “It’s actually the first time I have thought about it. I’m dreading it now. The most important thing this week is just to get into the team. I don’t know where I stand at the moment because there are so many quality players.

“Frustrating? No I don’t think so. Everybody has to be pulling in the same direction. I think if you do get dropped, you have to react positively to try to benefit the team and to try and make yourself a better player in order to get back.

“There is a certain buzz about the place that is not there every week. I think there is a little bit of nervousness as well, which is always a good thing. A lot of the players have had that nervousness before and it makes them that little bit sharper.”

Brian O’Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey, Felipe Contepomi, Isa Nacewa, Gordon D’Arcy, Shane Horgan and Kearney, along with Fitzgerald, makes for a pretty congested backline. Although Cheika has made it clear the bench players are not just back-up but viable tactical alternatives for Leinster’s attack, a marquee name may not make it onto the starting line-up at the home of English rugby.

Fitzgerald has played at Twickenham just once before. “Yeah, I played there last year and it was at the end of a pretty convincing loss, so I’ve obviously disappointing memories of the place. But everyone who plays professional rugby loves the big stage. It is where every young guy aspires to play at this level,” he says.

Last time out at the RDS it was Leinster basking in the glory. Payback may be on Wasps’ agenda. “I’m sure they will (want revenge). They were on the wrong end of the result that day and everything kind of clicked for us, which you cannot count on happening every week. But it’s such a long time ago, it is going to be irrelevant. It is a clean slate for both teams even if, in the back of their minds, they are looking for payback. There is massive motivation for both sides anyway even forgetting about that match. It won’t have much bearing.”

Wasps are down a few players with Tom Rees and Tom Palmer out, Joe Worsley also struggling for fitness and captain Raphael Ibanez out with concussion. But O’Kelly is not fooled by names assembled on paper and remembers back to last year when Leinster faced Leicester Tigers, who were down several players.

The Welford Road tacticians used that handicap to intensify the physical side of their game. “They came out with such aggression that we struggled,” says O’Kelly. No pithy assumptions to be peddled here, although, Leinster beat Cardiff last week in a close game that in a small way added greater hope for this week’s task. But it is their down days that can fog opinion of how good this collection of players can be.

“Cardiff were quality opposition. It was great to get a win there in tight circumstances,” says Fitzgerald. “Even though their league form hadn’t been the best, they’ve been performing well in the Heineken Cup and leading their group quite comfortably.”

O’Kelly is not yet the past, while Fitzgerald is very much the future. In the crossing of their career paths, as they travel in different directions, the two this week seem briefly at similar points.