Interview Eric Miller: Playing open-side is not Eric Miller's way but it's a route he'll gladly take if it leads to Australia, writes Gerry Thornley

We've perhaps judged Eric Miller a mite too harshly over the years. That Lions tour of South Africa over six long summers ago was quite an announcement; almost O'Driscollesque in its impact. Thereafter, he was expected to dominate matches to the same extent and therein lay the rub, for he possibly thought he had to himself.

He's always been an innately athletic runner and talented ball player, a prototype, when he first broke onto the scene, for the modern back row player. But arguably, he's a more rounded player now, both more diligent and more effective in his defensive game. Similarly, he's a more rounded individual, less intense and introverted, more outgoing and relaxed in himself.

It's hard to credit that it's been fully six years since Miller first broke into the Irish team. Even if he's a relatively low mileage 27-year-old, he's been around a while. He's even started talking like an old pro.

"The game is far more professional and there's a lot more competition around now these days. But the game itself is so much harder now. Guys are more in tune with what's going on, and as a backrower there's just not as much space as there used to be. Roles are more defined in a certain way and it's definitely harder."

That said, Miller's versatility across the back row could be a huge fillip to his World Cup prospects, especially if he goes well at open side today, for with only five back rowers likely to be picked, someone other than Keith Gleeson will have to be considered as an alternative at openside.

He hasn't played there for Ireland since his breakthrough year, having made his name as a number eight on the Lions tour of 1997 before playing at blindside in recent years. "I'm happy enough at seven. My first two or three caps were at seven. It's been a while since but it's something I feel I can slot into comfortably enough. It's fairly similar roles within the back row for the way we are trying to play. In the training it feels fairly comfortable to slot into. Obviously, defensively there are a few things I'll have to pick up on quickly enough with David Humphreys, defending with him, but the rest of it is fairly easy to slot into."

For all the intense competition within the back row, Miller's mood is positive, not least because he's feeling 100 per cent. Few players have experienced the catalogue of injuries which have stricken Miller, and last season was another case in point.

First there was a rib cartilage injury which flared up in the opening game of the season. Then he sustained a broken hand in his comeback match for Leinster against Newport. Having overcome that Miller was in the Irish squad for the first autumn international against Australia whereupon he strained a calf in training.

Despite a bit part against Fiji, by the time he'd had a run of games with Leinster it was too late to push his way into the back row reckoning. "You just can't miss a beat here with the amount of competition in the back row.

"But it brings out the best in everyone as well, and there's a good spirit within the group. Second rows and back rows get on very well. Obviously guys are vying for their own spot underneath it all, but still guys back each other up as much as possible."

He admits that there have been times in the past when he thought he was cursed. "But I'm past that stage now. No injury can blight me now at this stage. I know it sounds weird but the experience to deal with them is the important thing, get over them quickly and get back as soon as you can."

It assuredly helped Miller's cause and confidence that no matter what injuries befell him, or even after he was suspended for his uncharacteristic dismissal in the inaugural Celtic League final, Matt Williams never hesitated about reinstating him in the Leinster team.

It frustrated Trevor Brennan, for one, no end, but Williams' rationale was simple. "He's a world-class back rower," he reasoned, end of story. Having a coach with so much belief in you must be a significant boost for a player.

"He (Williams) knew my personality basically, probably more than any other coach I've been under. He knew my weaknesses and my strengths, he knew when to calm me down at the right times, and I learnt a lot off him in that respect, especially my mental approach to the game."

Nevertheless, despite consistently good form for Leinster and the Irish As in the second half of last season, Miller needed a big end-of-season tour more than most players. He showed his willingness for the cause, and earned himself additional brownie points with Eddie O'Sullivan, by taking an horrendous raking near his eye against Tonga and then playing six days later against Samoa. And perhaps showed more resilience as well.

"I can still remember it vividly. I threw a guy over a ruck, legally, and then the foot just come down on me and I thought I was going to lose an eye. I turned away at the last second and instinctively closed my eyelid, and just got a scrape on the lid and came across the nose."

"So I was extremely lucky but I was determined from then that I wanted to be fit for the week after if selected. I wasn't going to cry off easily, because I knew every game was important, especially leading up to now. Thankfully, it was a very quick recovery. By midweek my eye was fully open again and I was fine from there," he says matter-of-factly of the three stitches inserted by Dr Arthur Tanner and the remarkable recovery from the wound.

In concert with all those who experienced the oven-like heat and humidity of Apia, he describes the Samoan game as the hardest of his life. "Just getting through the game in that heat was unbelievable. We took the game to them and, surprisingly, they were just as tired as us by half-time. I was happy with that win, just mentally to get through as tough a game as that. Guys really held up their hand out there."

Miller was uppermost amongst them, with a strong showing on tour, and actually would have liked the season to have continued. Nevertheless, despite a hard-working, injury-free pre-season, he's rarely felt fresher or better. In training and in his seasonal opener for Leinster against Gloucester, when he was widely acclaimed as the best player on the pitch, team-mates report him to be in his element, fiercely hungry.

"I feel great. That feeling is back. The hunger has always been there but it's probably more a physical thing with fitness, and you only know that when you get a good run, free of injury, and a good pre-season behind you."

Though he made the World Cup squad four years ago, he was confined to two replacement bit parts against Romania and Australia in the pool stages. "I think I let the last one pass me by," Miller admits candidly. "It was a year or two after the Lions tour, I'd had a few niggly injuries but mentally I wasn't at my peak at that stage. I'd got into the squad but kinda knew I wasn't first-choice. It was a funny situation. I probably didn't back myself 100 per cent and physically I wasn't at my strongest. So, looking back on it, I probably didn't give it my best shot, which is why I'm determined to this time around, if selected."

That's the thing. Getting on board the plane to Sydney is only half the story. He hopes that the enforced interruptions will elongate his career at the other end. But Miller is conscious that as he nears 28, realistically he's more likely to be at his prime now than in France in 2007.

"It's a great stage. It's only as you become more experienced that you realise you can take it all in, and that's what makes it all the more important."

As he says himself, it's all to play for.