HEINEKEN CUP: Wasps v Leinster GERRY THORNLEYon how the prop is enjoying his Indian summer with Wasps but would like it to go on a bit longer – starting with beating Leinster

PHIL VICKERY is in good form these days. At 31 and injury-free, the World Cup-winning tighthead repeatedly says how much he is enjoying life and his rugby. His family are healthy and well, he has his own on-line clothing range under the moniker Raging Bull. Yep, life is good. The only thing that could cheer him up more, he says, would be a win over Leinster.

If he wasn’t still playing he could be an ambassador for the game generally and for the Heineken Cup in particular. The knock-out stages of this “wonderful” tournament have, he reasons, effectively come two games early for Wasps if they want to retain their interest in the competition beyond today.

“The bar is raised when it comes to the Heineken Cup. People come out in their masses and really get involved and really buy into it, and the players too. It’s where you want to be, it’s where you want to be playing. It’s tough, it’s hard; you go to some really tough places, which challenges you and which is what you want.”

He could also, it seems, market Leinster games. “What’s strange for me, from the outside looking in, is their adaptability. They’ve got the forward pack, they’ve got halfbacks, they’ve got the kicking game, they’ve got the running game – they’re a team that don’t really lack in anything.

“On their day, if they get all those things together, they’re pretty much unbeatable, and they play some great rugby. So it’s a huge game for us, and for both teams, because we’re both going to have to go for it to produce a game that is worthy of 30,000 people watching.”

So what happened to Wasps in the first game? “It was disappointing because we were actually in the game for long periods of time. Very often we were creating try-scoring opportunities, then turned the ball over and found ourselves under our sticks, watching the ball going over for an extra two points. You came off the pitch thinking ‘how did that happen?’ or ‘what is going on?’. It was a strange fixture, really.”

You’d presume that all the Wasps think tank would have to have done at the outset of the week was show a video nasty of that day in Dublin and thereafter let the players’ vengeful juices salivate until kick-off?

“The key for us this weekend is not to get too emotionally charged,” says Vickery, echoing the sentiments of team-mate Eoin Reddan. “The key for us is going to be our preparation this week and concentrate on what we have to do and how we get ourselves up for the game, because we all know what Leinster are capable of, what players they have. It’s about making sure we go out and do it.”

A Cornishman from farming stock, Vickery had 11 seasons with Gloucester before moving to Wasps, where he is now in the third year of an Indian summer which he is hoping to extend by another couple of years.

“There’s a great amount of history here in the way it started and there’s a big amateur section with all the mini rugby teams and the ladies team. It’s a very, very proud club and one I enjoy being part of.

“They like to keep developing a lot of young talent and bring them through, and I think the greatest asset Wasps have is that they’re not afraid to give people opportunities, whether you’re 19, 29 or 33.”

Indeed, there are no age barriers, and they tend not to sign stars. Look at their Irish recruits in recent times – Johnny O’Connor, Reddan, and Peter Bracken from Connacht and Jeremy Staunton. Yet there are also some big characters in the dressingroom, be they Raphael Ibanez, Vickery himself, Serge Betsen or the recently retired Lawrence Dallaglio.

“There’s a lot of great guys here at the club, there’s some great characters, and it certainly helps to have a bit of character here because it makes coming in to work enjoyable. There’s a lot of guys who, perhaps to the outside world aren’t so well known but are very, very good club men and work extremely hard. There’s a good work ethic here and they enjoy their rugby on and off the field as well.”

Whereas speculation links James Haskell with the Ospreys and Danny Cipriani all over the place, it is no wonder therefore that Vickery is keen to put to pen to paper quickly. He says he enjoys playing as much as ever, and always tries to do so with a smile on his face.

Ask him what it is he enjoys most about playing rugby, and he responds instantly: “I enjoy the people, I enjoy the boys, I enjoy just being around the club environment, playing rugby at the weekend and the crowd, and the camaraderie, the results, the highs and the lows, the adrenalin . . . it’s such a great game,” he says, emphasising the great, and adding: “I’m very, very fortunate to be able to go out and be part of something that hundreds of thousands people would love to be able to do. It’s a real privilege.”

Against that, he’s had three back operations along with notable injuries to his eye, ribs and arm, missing tours and Six Nations campaigns along the way, including the Grand Slam of 2003.

Yet he’s also a three-time World Cup veteran, and was one of the rocks around which England’s 2003 success was built when starting all seven matches, before captaining England to the final in 2007 and in last year’s Six Nations, as well as being an ever-present in the 2001 Lions’ Test series in Australia.

Winning a World Cup was, he says, “a pretty magical time”, although not to the extent that all else faded by comparison. “To have done that was great but winning the Heineken Cup with Wasps was a real pipe dream, really, and it all came true in my first season here.

“It was pretty magical and then again last season when winning the Guinness Premiership. There’s been lots of things and I’ve been very, very fortunate to win a few things doing a job which I love. I feel very, very blessed.”