Interview with Chris Whitaker: Gerry Thornley talks to Leinster's new play-maker Chris Whitaker on why he decided to ply his trade on this side of the world

By rights, the English Premiership might have seemed a likelier destination for Chris Whitaker. His parents were, as he says with Aussie drollness "ten-pound Poms", having taken the boat from England back in the late 1960s. Yet there was something about previous treks with the Wallabies to Ireland, and especially Dublin, which lured him inexorably to Leinster.

Availing of the opportunity rugby offers to experience a new culture, and while still at the top of his game, was something he'd always wanted to do, he says, in part because his parents emanated from Sevenoaks in Kent.

Whitaker very nearly did so in 1997 at the invitation of Bob Dwyer when with Leicester. He'd only had a year on the bench with New South Wales and wanted to see how far he could go with the Waratahs and the Wallabies. But the desire to sample foreign fields always remained.

"It was just a matter of when. Coming over when I did was perfect. In terms of rugby I was still playing with New South Wales. I didn't want to come on the 'out' of my career, I wanted to come over while still having plenty to offer."

His wife Alison, who had never previously been to Europe, was also keen on trying a different country and culture. The experiences of good rugby mates, such as Tim Horan and Jason Little, and more recently Matt Burke, only heightened his desire to pack his bags.

Yet when he and Alison came over last November to England and Ireland, he found himself continually emphasising the attractions of Dublin.

"The Wallabies were here for about five weeks in the 1999 World Cup in Portmarnock and I've always loved it. There's something about it. Even the after-match functions with the Irish team are always the best after-match functions. The other ones you can't wait to get out of. The Irish ones are sensational. Everyone sits around and has a few beers. It's also the people and the place."

The lure of Leinster was helped, of course, by having former Randwick team-mates Michael Cheika and David Knox as the Leinster coaching ticket, and with Owen Finegan also on board the Australian influence is now very pronounced. Whitaker played against Knox at Super 12 level and up until the season before last was also coached by them at Randwick.

Cheika himself might never have envisaged himself becoming a coach, but Whitaker was not in the least surprised.

"They used to run the show then," he says of their playing days together.

"They were the two biggest talkers in the team, and the two biggest organisers, so it doesn't surprise me at all."

Despite winning 31 caps for the Wallabies, the bulk were won from the bench. Whitaker's career, it might be popularly presumed, suffered for having coincided with George Gregan's. Yet Whitaker reflects on his Australian career with no regrets. He enjoyed every minute of it, "and I always had the thought in my head that I could have been at home watching it on the telly. I always thought I was blessed to have been a part of so much Test rugby."

Far from bitter rivals, he remains good friends with Gregan. The Whitakers have two girls, Lilyrose (four-and-a-half) and Jazmine (three), and Gregan's children are of similar age. Indeed, Lilyrose has a picture of one of Gregan's boys in her bedroom in the house they currently rent in Ranelagh.

Whitaker's sanguine approach emanates from his formative playing days.

Having played at Sydney Boys School, he never took that elite route via representative schools, under-19 or under-21 teams.

"If you honestly asked why I went to Randwick after school it was purely because I enjoyed it. And then I was playing on the second team at Randwick when I got asked to come and train with New South Wales, and then made it onto the bench there and started the year after."

He never envisaged making a professional career out of the game and has a degree in construction management.

"Everything's been like a bonus to me." One of those was to become the most-capped Waratahs player of all time.

"The guy I overtook was Matt Burke, who is a New South Wales legend and an Australian rugby legend, so to be taking a record off him is a little bit embarrassing. It won't stand for long either, but in saying that it was a 100 and something more games than I ever thought I was going to play."

Easy-going and unassuming, an excellent link player with a classy service, it also says something about his consistency and durability. Reared in Cudgee, near Bondi Beach, he has been pleasantly surprised by the weather so far and astutely avoided the worst of Dublin traffic by cycling a racer.

Darker, wetter, colder nights loom, alas, and climate as well as the different playing culture of the Magners League and the European Cupwill present him with new challenges.

But that's the way he wanted it. Candidly, he admits to being nervous at his first day of pre-season, likening it to a first day at school, but he also likens the New South Wales and Leinster style of play, with talented backs such as Felipe Contepomi given licence to play what he sees in front of him, and even the similar perception of city slickers and the accompanying baggage.

"You can see the feeling within the team. The boys were disappointed about last year. Losing to Munster was a big thing and I think there's a feeling that we can go one better, that's for sure.

"You need a bit of luck here and there, but there's definitely the talent in the team and the ambition to do it. I would love to be a part of that as well."