Cave emerges from darkness

Darren Cave walks into the Morrison Room at Carton House and patiently takes a seat as Simon Zebo’s interviews spills over the allotted time. Cave is in no rush for he knows the line of questioning to come.

In 2009, the Ulster centre made his debut for Ireland against Canada and doubled up on caps a week later against the USA. He was 22 at the time with a burgeoning reputation as a strong tackler and dangerous runner and folk were already sizing him up for Brian O’Driscoll’s jersey.

Four years on and he is feeling a distinct case of déjà vu. O’Driscoll, as was the case back then, is away on Lions duty and so Cave finds himself embarking on another two-Test tour against the Eagles and Canadians with just seven more minutes, thieved in New Zealand last summer, to sustain him since.

“It is interesting being here, in camp and talking about goals and things like that,” said Cave, who departs for Houston, Texas today with the rest of Les Kiss’s party and with Joe Schmidt to follow them out next Friday. “We won both the games on that trip, but I’m not sure if it could be considered an overly successful tour.

“From my personal perspective, if you’d told me at the time that I was only going to play once since then I wouldn’t exactly have been buzzing with excitement. With the new management, there are massive opportunities for everyone to stake a claim. We want to win the games, but people want to be involved with Ireland going forward and that is what people are going to want to show.”

You might imagine that the masters in psychology he earned a few years ago would help him assimilate such disappointment, but Cave doesn’t go along with a lot of what he calls that “mumbo jumbo” and has instead found solace in one-to-ones with some trusted confidantes.

“I’ve a very good relationship with [sports psychologist] Tadhg McIntyre, brother of Donal, who I took the masters with and I had a couple of very good chats with Ronan O’Gara when, maybe, I’d come down to Ireland camp and have been feeling sorry for myself.

“He’s a good one for a quiet word/kick up the bum, you know? At the end of the day, you can feel sorry for yourself and get nowhere or you can keep the head down, keep working hard and when the opportunity comes you take it.”

So, ask Cave what he thought of O’Driscoll’s decision to give one more season to his rugby career after all those ‘One More Year’ chants towards the end of the domestic campaign and the answer is refreshingly honest.

“I wasn’t one of the lads chanting in the RDS anyway! Ach, for me as a professional rugby player, I have just got to control what I can control. I can’t control how long Brian plays for, I can’t control how well he plays.

“I have just got to control my own form. We have a lot of good, young backs at Ulster and I just have to make sure I’m staying ahead of them so I have to focus on my own form and keep my place. If I don’t keep my place there then I can’t kick on.”

It’s a fair point.

Ulster have already unearthed young gems in Stuart Olding and Luke Marshall who ply their trade in the central channels while the likes of Tommy Bowe, Andrew Trimble, Craig Gilroy and Jared Payne are perfectly capable of doing a stint there if required.

He admits it hasn’t been easy to watch the Gilroys, Marshalls and Simon Zebos get their opportunities with Ireland while he has sat motionless in the queue behind O’Driscoll who, unusually for him, did not miss a game with Ireland for the next two seasons after Cave’s North American bow.

The Ulster man was injured for most of the second of those two campaigns anyway, but the fates conspired against him again early in 2012 when superb form for his province took him back to the brink of the Six Nations squad before fitness issues again took him down mid-stride.

“Yeah,” he says without much enthusiasm, “the time you are referring to was quite unlucky but Brian has completely dominated that jersey for I don’t know how many years.”

Maybe now, opportunity is preparing to knock. O’Driscoll will spend the next five weeks in Australia while Keith Earls, the man asked to deputise for him five out of the last six times, is recovering from injury. And Cave is by far the most experienced outside-centre of those left standing.

Time to shine.