Pool A Interview with Peter Stringer : Gerry Thornley talks to Ireland's smallest player aboutthe size of Sunday's clash

Team-mates are kidding him that he's the smallest of the 600 players in the World Cup, but there's none with bigger hearts. You'd look at the ever-smiling little figure off the pitch and wonder how he can play this game. But watching two of three younger brothers grow bigger than him had always made him a fierce, feisty competitor.

Even after losing a tennis match against either George or John as a little nipper there'd be no talking to him. There might be a few tears as well, and after an underage rugby defeat with Cork Con or Pres Bray, he'd take defeat as badly as any competitive little kid you could imagine.

He's taken a bit of ribbing about his stature amongst the 600-strong cast list, especially from John Kelly. Water off a duck's back.

"I was looking at Japan playing Scotland and thinking 'oh my God, look at the size of those Japanese' - and the lads were saying 'you're officially the smallest'," he recounts, laughing heartily. "But if I am I wouldn't mind it. I like being this size and I wouldn't change it. I feel I can cope against anyone really, and it hasn't hindered me in the past."

In fact, he's listed at 5' 7", or 170cm, while one of the Japanese scrumhalves, Takashi Tsuji, is listed at 167cm. But in time-honoured fashion, let's not allow the facts get in the way of a good story. Needless to say, Stringer takes good care of himself and he's unfathomably strong for his size. He'd have to be.

But even so, like Tsuji, in the modern game there's surely only one position he could have played, and in his two displays to date his handling and passing from the base have been first rate. When you think of all the rain-enforced, slight fumbles or knock-ons by players attempting to pick the ball up at the breakdown in the last week especially, it makes his performance with a proverbial bar of soap last week against Namibia all the more exceptional.

He merely states he is "happy enough" with his form to date, but will admit that he's been pleased with his passing. And the key has been the extra work he and the other scrumhalves in the Irish squad, Guy Easterby and Neil Doak, have been putting in of late.

He's probably never worked harder on his game. "When you're living in hotels with a spare hour here or there, you've time to kill, and the three of us have gone out with a few balls to do some kicking and passing, and it's worked really well. It helps that the three of us get on really well. The fact that we're away from home so much and as a team we've a lot of spare time. When you analyse the matches on the computers it gives you an opportunity to try out things and experiment."

Everybody, Stringer included, is primed to be at his best for Sunday's crunch clash with Argentina. Defeat really can't be countenanced. Were it to happen, Stringer would be unapproachable.

"It's as big as they come. It's one game but a lot depends on it, to put right what happened four years ago, even though we beat them last autumn. Declan (Kidney) has described it as a local derby match, even though it's Ireland and Argentina, and it's just going to be a dog-rough game - a real dogfight. And at the end of it, there's going to be very little between the sides."

For Stringer, one of 15 in Sunday's 22-man squad who had no involvement in the fateful quarter-final play-off defeat in Lens, the hangover and desire for payback mightn't be so acute.

"It hasn't been talked about, because there's a lot of new faces around. I think because it's four years ago, it's out of most people's heads. It's a new team, a new challenge, just a completely different scenario I think."

Stringer has, however, played in the subsequent meetings with Argentina - the defeat in Buenos Aires in the summer of 2000 and the win at Lansdowne Road last autumn. Familiarity has bred respect, even if a meeting with Los Pumas is never something to relish, particularly for a scrumhalf.

"You go into a game (against Argentina) with a game plan and as soon as the game kicks off you have to revert back to a game like you'd play in a Munster Cup final or something like that.

"You literally don't know what they're going to throw at you. They will fight for every single ball. Even if we've a ball won at a ruck we know they're going to compete for it. We know they're going to come through the sides and through the middle. We have to be prepared for it," he says, and to that end much of Wednesday's training focused on the physical exchanges, especially close in.

Though Ireland seem to be preparing themselves for what O'Sullivan says is a definitive style of Pumas rugby, Stringer is also concerned about some of their less structured approach. "They can do anything from anywhere on the pitch, and that can be a worry. When we watched their game against South Africa, they scored two or three tries from turnover balls in that game. When they have the ball they keep it. They've a lot of talent there."

There's a bit too much stereotyping of Los Pumas as Latin, volatile, short-fused and all that palaver. However, although there's been less evidence this month of their tendency not to not roll away in the tackle, come around the sides or lie up offside, it's funny how opponents always come away from games against them scratching their heads and seemingly never having played well against them. France twice in the summer, South Africa too, and Australia in the tournament opener, being recent cases in point.

"Yeah, you've that feeling of complete frustration. You're not playing well, and the team's not going well, but you've got to remember that that's what they're good at. They do that to everyone. You just have to find a way out of there.

"I think keeping the ball can frustrate them. Not giving them silly turnovers and spill ball, because that's what they thrive on. They're good at loose play, their back three are very good counterattackers, and to be fair the forwards are good at offloading and keeping the ball alive. To keep them out of the game, you've got to hold onto the ball."

Playing against Agustin Pichot can be a pain - a terrific spoiler, liable to tap and go, or snipe at any moment. But Stringer gets a great kick out of playing against him.

On the pitch, Pichot wouldn't go in for slagging, although Stringer becomes aware of the Pumas' greater volatility and volubility as the match progresses.

"He gets quite fired up. He would be a bit lippy to the referee. I think he can get frustrated. But he's a guy who's crucial for them. At nine and ten if we can keep them under control we're on our way to stopping their game plan."

This tie has loomed large for years now. Stringer admits he's probably never played in a bigger game.

"It's massive. Thousands of people are coming from Ireland - that shows how big it is. So it's just a matter of getting to Sunday and not holding back one ounce of energy. We just have to give it everything."

As if he'd ever do anything else.