TOUR OF SOUTH AFRICA: Few careers in recent times could highlight the fickleness of modern rugby more than that of David Wallace. It's been a lean, lean couple of years for the Munster flanker and it hardly seems credible that tomorrow he starts back-to-back Tests for the first time since the end of the 2002 Six Nations.

Back then he was virtually an ever-present in the side and it seemed incongruous that he might be confined to bit parts in the subsequent two years. Talents such as his don't grow on trees, and few Irish forwards possess his explosive running game and ability to break a tackle. He is almost a rarity in that he can be a game-breaking Irish forward.

Of course, there've been mitigating factors, not least a troublesome shoulder injury which, both before and after an operation prior to the start of last season, had him playing through the pain barrier.

He first detected the problem during the autumn internationals in 2002. Somehow he played through the season, but by the time he was replaced in the concluding defeat in Paris, his game was suffering. "My confidence was going down and down every game, because if you're worried about something, everything else does seem to suffer as well."

"So I think it was almost a relief to be told I needed an operation, because at least something was going to happen about it," he admits, even though it meant missing the New Zealand tour and much of the 2002-03 season.

Complications set in by way of an infection, which hampered his attempted comebacks. But even earlier this season, Wallace concedes, his shoulder was still giving him trouble. He had resigned himself to playing with pain for the rest of his career and, looking back, it's only been since Christmas that the discomfort has receded.

"It's been a hard road back. When I first broke into the Irish team I was playing with a lot of confidence, but then for the first time in my career I suppose I started doubting myself.

"That was the most annoying part of it, and then coming back was a long process. It's just such a relief that the pain has gone from it.

"It happened basically overnight. For almost two and a half years I was playing with it and then something happened. I got a knock on it, maybe dislodged some scar tissue and the pain was gone. I never had pain with it again, which was bizarre really."

Nonetheless, an Irish backrower can ill-afford a limp these days, and Wallace quickly found himself well down an ultra-competitive pecking order. One of the anomalies of Wallace's career is that over the course of his first 16 Tests, when he was usually one of the team's main strike runners, he failed to score, but has recorded tries in each of his last three games for Ireland.

The run began as a replacement against Wales in August, and continued with a try in the concluding World Cup warm-up game against Scotland at Murrayfield. With the 30-man squad to be announced the next morning, he seemed to have nudged his way in.

"A lot of the players were saying that to me but I had a feeling it was going to be bad news. I would say that to them and they would kind of say 'shut up, what are you talking about?' But I knew deep down, I felt that vibe (that he wouldn't make the cut)."

That Saturday night, he returned home late. All the players had been warned that if they weren't picked, they'd receive a phone call from Eddie O'Sullivan early the next morning. Wallace's restless night wasn't helped by mates ringing him in the small hours.

"I'd just got to sleep a couple of hours when the phone started ringing next to my bed and I shot up, 'oh no, what's this?' It was a couple of mates out on the tear. But then, at about 9.00 the next morning, the phone rang again, and I saw Eddie O'Sullivan's number coming up, so I knew it was bad news."

Though called up as a late replacement for the injured Alan Quinlan in the World Cup, he was effectively on the outside looking in throughout that campaign and the Six Nations, until injury to Keith Gleeson opened another door for, of all games, the Triple Crown-winning defeat of the Scots last March.

"It was brilliant to be back involved. I'd been out of the scene and had been shouting at the television like everyone else during the English game. Not being involved tainted it a little bit and I just presumed I wouldn't be in for the Scottish game either. Haunted really," he says, chuckling again at his good luck.

It comes as a surprise to learn that this softly-spoken, easy-going lad can scarcely remember been racked by so many doubts or nerves in the build-up to a game. But the try-scoring habit remained undimmed, this latest one more down to strength than speed.

"I suppose once you get one they start coming a bit easier," he says, chuckling. "It's great to be scoring tries and that is a good indicator to me of how I'm playing as well, because I seem to score more when I feel I'm on top of my game."

That's his strength. David Wallace was born, you feel, to run with a rugby ball, but fearful of being pigeonholed as a one-trick pony, he's quick to point out that "there's all the other things that go along with it which you have to concentrate on. Playing with Ireland you have to do everything right, it's not just about carrying the ball, and that's why it's the greatest challenge."

Mentally and physically he feels better than for a long time, and probably comes into a summer tour fresher and hungrier than most. Conditions should be to his liking too. "I like the firm grounds to be honest."

Like all his team-mates, he's under no illusions about the physicality that awaits tomorrow, but like them he comes across as sure of himself without being cocky or arrogant.

"They are one of the most physical teams there is, but I think we're going to match that. We can't be intimidated by it, and we have to match that, especially in the forwards. We can't give them any leeway. That's basically it, y'know."