Hickie shaking off the past and moving ahead

WHAT a difference a year makes! Rewind just short of 365 days and Denis Hickie's world wasn't a fun place.

Leinster’s Heineken Cup hopes had just been mortally wounded by Sale Sharks at Lansdowne Road. To make matters worse, Ireland were facing into an uncertain Six Nations bereft of on-field general Keith Wood and low on confidence after a traumatic World Cup exit to France in Melbourne.

And then there was the injury that cost Hickie almost a year of his career.