Whitaker enjoying Leinster adventure

LIKE most Australians who surrender to their wanderlust and head north of the equator, Chris Whitaker hasn’t taken long to settle into his new surroundings since arriving in Dublin last summer.

His main concern before arrival seems to have been the weather — as if he had mistaken Ranelagh for Russia.

An archetypal surfing son of Sydney — his younger brother is an internationally ranked master of the waves — Whitaker seems to have equated the Irish wind and rain to a bad smell. All pervasive and impossible to escape.