The return of the String

HE described the moment of his recall yesterday as akin to his first cap — the same tingles and shivers he experienced the week of his first cap against Scotland in 2000.

Saturday will mark only Peter Stringer’s second start in Ireland’s last 16 tests, a run of games stretching back to that critical career-changing moment when dropped, or as many felt at the time, scape-goated in the aftermath of the Georgia debacle at the Rugby World Cup in September 2007.

The 31-year-old admits to experiencing low points over the last two years when, as he puts it, his whole world was rocked. Returning from France, he did retain the Munster number nine shirt until Tomás O’Leary replaced him for the knock-out stages of the 2008 Heineken Cup. And since then he has played bit parts behind his provincial colleague for both Munster and Ireland.