Six Nations/France v Ireland:Bernard Jackman has waited long enough for his first Ireland start and is not inclined to let the occasion pass him by, he tells Johnny Watterson.

It used to be vitamin C, the little orange tablet, sharp to the tongue, that sent you on your way every morning oozing health and energy. Now it's the four Cs - concentration, confidence, control, commitment. How we are seduced by sports psychology.

When Bernard Jackman talks of putting himself under pressure, he is probably talking not so much about pressure as about being fully committed and understanding what rides on the outcome.

Pressure is bad; commitment is good. Pressure is nausea, the toilet, sweating, the toilet; commitment is giving value to his game, hitting his goals, playing smart.

Those things in mind, he finds his season now taking on a life of its own. First he was one of three hookers on the Leinster panel looking up at the other two. Then Michael Cheika gave him his opportunity.

Soon he was second pick on the bench and looking at the action week in, week out, waiting for his chance. It came and he took it, then sped away from the competition.

Eddie O'Sullivan took notice of the way the crowd loved his rampaging style. Hitting more targets at lineouts and eye-catchingly dynamic in the loose, Jackman had what might be called Munster heart and Munster mentality but he wore a blue shirt.

The 20 minutes he got last week against Italy were enough to convince O'Sullivan that, along with Jamie Heaslip, he should be thrown into the lions' dens that is Stade de France. Jackman - more warrior than worrier - says he will eat the pressure. We know what he means.

"This is an opportunity for me to stake a claim, to play for Ireland regularly," he says. "That's enough pressure for me, regardless of what's happening in the background, politically in the media. It doesn't matter to me. It's my opportunity to make a claim for a jersey and that's all the pressure I need.

"It's the pressure I will use to motivate myself because I know how easy it is to be dropped and not to have the opportunity to play every week. I play with that attitude every week, massive pressure.

"I know that if I don't perform for Leinster someone else would come into my position and my career would be over. I'm not as young anymore. That's the motivation for me - to stay where I am and to make an impact every week."

There is little doubt Jackman is facing France because of his ball-carrying ability, his recycling ability and his way of punching holes around the place. If he can suck in two defenders instead of one then Ireland somewhere might have a man over.

But against France, who are developing a game closer to basketball than trench warfare, it is hoped Jackman in the loose might be the Irish horse for the French course.

"You might take 10 carries and not make 10 yards," he says. "So long as your recycle ball quickly and you've a high success rate in terms of getting it back . . . You don't want to get turned over. Sometimes it's unglamorous."

The Newbridge College boy recalls his first memories of Irish rugby, being packed on to a bus to Dublin for an Ireland game against England, squashed between guys "who were six-foot-eight and 40 years old, who'd scabbed a ticket off someone".

Of the game itself he remembers "not being able to see much". He laughs at the thought of it but knows that as a player, that can sometimes happen too. A game can flash past and all that remain are disjointed moments.

It will be his first time to set foot in Stade de France. He will not let this game pass him by to become some sort of vague memory. Jackman has fought too hard to be stunned by the lights.

"I realise this is very important. My first involvement with Ireland was 10 years ago. I'd been around the squads and missed out on selection a number of times," he says.

"Now I've got my opportunity, I definitely realise how important it is. Not just for me, but the team, the whole general public. It's something I want to make an impact on."

Desirable emotional states in an athlete: feeling this is the opportunity to demonstrate exceptional ability; feeling confident enough to take on and beat anybody; feeling nervous but being totally at ease with the sensation; feeling ready and eager to start.

"Last week was 20 minutes of running around mad, trying to make things happen," he says. "A strength of mine is ball carrying so maybe that's an area he (O'Sullivan) wants me to bring to the party. I respect their defence. It will be very, very hard. I'll just do what I've been doing all year."