Ten years ago scrumhalf Kevin Putt made a lasting impression when playing with Terenure College in the inaugural year of the All-Ireland League, and likewise when coaching the club the following season. Out of sight if not out of mind since - the New Zealander has been linked with Connacht, Terenure and Ireland in the interim, and played with London Irish for a season and a half - a decade on he's back in the old routine as coach of "the college".
A lot of water had passed under the bridge since then, though you wouldn't necessarily think it to look at him. He spent seven years with Natal in South Africa, where he played over 130 games, reached one Super 12 final and two semi-finals, and won over a dozen appearances with the Springboks but no Tests, due to the presence of Joost van der Westhuizen. This was before the advent of tactical substitutions.
Yet there'd always been a gra for Ireland. Not least because he married an Irish girl, Louise Connolly and, tellingly, he can still rattle off as quick as a flash the date he first arrived. September 15th, 1990. Unsurprisingly, the memories were fashioned as much off the pitch as on it.
"I've got to be honest, it was my first time out of New Zealand and what I remember was great social times, obviously. In terms of the rugby it was a bit of a shock to the system having come from the New Zealand system. Having said that it was wonderful to be involved with the `college'.
"I was astounded by schools' rugby here. That year they made the schools' cup final and more people came to that match than came to all the senior games put together. That really shocked me, the following for it and the obsession for it. But so did club rugby also, not the standard of it but the (lack of) focus on the senior side."
As he's quick to state, all has changed, changed utterly since then. "Ireland have got it pretty much right in terms of its hierarchial order," Putt says. He thinks it will be another few years before Ireland's three-tiered structure falls into place, but sees as positives the loyalty of leading players to their clubs and the clubs' need to continually fill the voids left when they move up a level by developing young talent from within.
"The way the provinces are going, the clubs are essential as the ultimate feeder system," he says, adding that if the undetected young talent in his own club are anything to go by, "some fish are getting through the net".
A possible solution, as he sees it, would be an expanded base of about eight professional set-ups, based on franchises. He recognises, however, that tradition will never allow this to happen. "The strong (in the AIL) will get stronger and the weak will get weaker," he believes.
As an Irish passport holder, one of the ironies of Putt's continual links with Ireland is that he was sounded out by the Irish management for last season's World Cup. Alas, International Board eligibilty rules decreed that he could only qualify through the three-year residency regulation, or by blood lineage up to a grandparent. He actually has an Irish great-grandparent but his passport is postnuptial. As he notes, laughing at the irony of it, "if there was a war I would be expected to fight for Ireland, but I don't qualify to play rugby for Ireland." Nor, a further irony here, was being signed up full-time with Leinster's European Cup campaign part of the plan. "It's the equivalent of any provincial, professional system anywhere around the world," he says matter-of-factly.
"Physically they're right on court, they've got some of the best fitness advisers there are, they're right on track with the coaching, it's fantastic. Really they've got no problems. "A personal perception, and this is not a criticism, is that in the southern hemisphere they're a lot more aware of the mental approach to the game. People (in Ireland) look at that a bit sideways, but it's something that will come here."
Terenure have changed a bit too, even if last season's semi-final collapse at home to Lansdowne seemed like something of a throwback to the "nearly men" of yore. Even Putt in his pomp couldn't rectify that old bugbear, last-day defeats to Old Wesley and Dungannon denying them promotion in his two seasons there.
Another followed two years later at Blackrock, before finally they made it at the sixth attempt and have remained there since. Flattering to deceive a little by finishing third in 1996-97, a couple of seasons in the lower half of the table were followed by their best campaign last season, finishing second in the league stages before the semi-final defeat to Lansdowne.
"I'm really impressed by the set-up here, obviously due to a lot of great work by Gerry Murphy. The guys have assumed additional reponsibilities, they see an opportunity for a future career and those that don't have changed their whole perception 100 per cent. Their actual physical prowess has improved tenfold and I think that's distinctly because of the potential for a career choice."
If getting the numbers out for training may be considerably easier, it's still funny to hear him talking of "cutting his teeth at this thing". He'd had offers to continue playing in England but saw his future in coaching, with degrees in commerce and physical education, plus a diploma in teaching useful fall-backs.
Ostensibly, he and Louise returned to Ireland because their four-year-old daughter Shauna has a metabolic disorder; hence their commitment to staying for at least the immediate future. Last season's achievements by this young, unheralded Terenure team set a tough benchmark, and after their promising league and Cup form in Leinster (one game away from the double) many observers now regard Terenure as dark horses.
"One thing I've noticed in Ireland is that the media, supporters, everyone, they're great when things are going well but they're the first to stab you in the back when things go badly. But having said that I've no problem with us being fancied to do well. We can take belief from that and if that comes through in our rugby it might help. It would be the furthest thing from the truth to suggest that we're capable of winning the AIL at the moment, but stranger things have happened."
