Pool Five/Clermont Auvergne v Munster: Johnny Wattersontalks to the Kiwi centre Lifeimi Mafi, who is getting to where he needs to be in terms of aggression, strength and confidence

"Law-Fame-Mee. It's pronounced Law-Fame-Mee. You say it like 'Law'. 'Law' at the start. 'Law'," says Lifeimi Mafi.

The 25-year-old Tongan is sitting in the bar in the Sports Centre at University of Limerick, vacuum wrapped beneath and padded up on the outside. Behind him Doug Howlett bounces around, kicking his heels. Three Kiwis and Munster's sizeable back-line rump, the record try-scoring All Black Howlett, Rua Tipoki and Mafi, prepare to drive back to Cork.

Munster the global village won't like the word that is going around. They will bridle at the current whispering campaign. Those old images of the carnage in the Killing Fields, of Peter Clohessy emerging from a ruck with blood trickling out of another opening and of big men laying down their bodies in the January mud are as far removed now from the new brand as a fag at half-time. Munster won't like it at all that their back line has developed sex appeal.

But now at the end of a training session that the players may have felt took place in a dishwasher, you can't escape the feeling that the darkness descending at 3.30pm and the gathering storm sweeping in from the Atlantic are an affront to the three players' sense of what rugby conditions should be. But Mafi has been here for a year and to the New Zealand-bred centre dark skies are nothing if not a challenge.

All aspects of Mafi's rugby are issues to overcome and perfect. He strives to get stronger, knit better with the team, tackle more painfully, hit rucks harder. He wants to be a lightning running back and an auxiliary loose forward. He looks to the older Tipoki for guidance along the centre line and to coach Jim Williams for the grunt of clearing out bodies. A brooding sky, or a Clermont Auvergne side flying high in France, becomes just another of the challenges gathering, all of them to be knocked down.

Nihil Boni Sine Labore - "Nothing achieved without hard work" - is the motto of his old school, Palmerston North Boys High. Mafi is as Mafi does. The old motto seems burned into his thinking.

"I think since I arrived here I've learned to be a more aggressive player," he says. "Back home I was a smaller back and since I've come here I've gained a few more kilos. I've tried to get bigger, get where I need to be. I've definitely had to get stronger, have had to attack the ball so I've put the time and effort into that. It's a confidence thing, confidence in the players around me as well.

"There is a good feeling among the backs. We've been going fairly well. It's a good feeling. Since I came here a year ago, there is a lot more confidence in the back line.

"The defence has improved a lot. I think we're coming forward and we're making aggressive tackles whereas last year we kind of held off.

"Everyone is confident in the attacking system so everyone is confident to come up. That allows you to know exactly what the guy next to you is doing, so you can read the game. We, myself and Rua, can also change into loose forwards if needs be. I'm working on that and it's a big change from last year. I'm learning from Jim Williams how to clean rucks. I think we are strong in that area."

Mafi's mother and father moved from Tonga to the land of the long white cloud with his four brothers, Saia, Fatai, Cori and Anthony, and his sister, Aspau, who died at just three years old. His elder brothers lived on the island but Lifeimi's memories are all New Zealand and the paddocks of Palmerston North. The rugby landscape has always dominated his thinking and after school the more ruthless shark pool of under-19 and under-21 All Blacks teams propelled him forward.

In his first year at under-21 he was on the wing because of his pace and finishing. In his second year they pushed him into the centre. Life was good. Luke McAlister and Dan Carter were blossoming there too. At sevens rugby, his speed and athleticism was dangerous enough to earn him a senior All Black shirt, but at club level and in the 15-man game he was stalled.

"My first year at under-21s I was on the wing," he says. "That kind of helped my finishing. The following year I was pushed out to centre. I've a bit of speed off the mark. I like to get my hands on the ball and look at the space. I like playing at the centre of the midfield, like being close to the ball. I try to play what's in front of me as much as I can but also try to look up, see the options."

Too often warming the bench for the Hurricanes while the All Black blue bloods Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu and Tana Umaga burnished their reputations, Lifeimi found his confidence withering and his frustration growing. Family anxiety or not, he threw in his lot with Munster, almost as quickly as the offer arrived, largely for the good of his rugby.

"With the Hurricanes I wasn't really getting that much game time," he adds. "Tana Umaga, Conrad Smith, Nono, you know, they are big names in New Zealand. Then I saw this opportunity, with Peter Stringer and Ronan O'Gara, that could build my confidence, build my rugby. Jason Holland . . . got in touch with me and the academy guy here in Munster also got in touch with me. He (Hamish Adams) was my academy guy back in Palmerston North. He knows my brothers, my family quite well."

Mafi's pace and his willingness to exploit gaps and Tipoki's gift of being able to move well through traffic have complemented each other more obviously this season. The third of the trio has yet to be slotted in but it is not expected Howlett's introduction will blunt Munster's attacking edge.

"I had to make a relationship with Rua. We're both from New Zealand and here we live just down the block from each other (in Cork)," says Mafi. "We always get together. I think that shows in our game. We can read each other a lot more than other guys so we are playing together as a unit rather than as two individuals. I think he's a lot more elusive than me in close areas, whereas I like to be in open spaces a bit more so I can use my speed. He can make space for me. I can run off him. I played against him a few times when I was back at home but, yeah, we only really met when I arrived here."

He looks up from the table and smiles.

"Now Dougy has arrived."

When Adams and Holland came looking for Mafi in November 2006, a family meeting was hastily convened. Within three weeks the life of the youngest member was about to be transformed. The word on the "Southern Irish" club that played in the Heineken European Cup had travelled well across continents 12,000 miles to New Zealand. Through Williams, Holland and other Southern Hemisphere players, Munster had earned goodwill and exported more than just its rugby.

The Mafi family blessed his departure and without fanfare Lifeimi arrived over 12 months ago with his fiancée, Sarah. More recently they were joined by baby Cassidy - she is now 10 weeks old.

"That makes everything kind of fit," he says. "You know. I'm comfortable here. She's comfortable here."

In their recent Magners League meeting with Llanelli Scarlets in a monsoon, the Welsh scrumhalf Dwayne Peel broke away from his own 22 and burnt Tipoki for pace. Peel, regarded as one of the fastest nines, looked to be out on his own until Mafi began the chase. He got to Peel yards from the Munster try line and brought him down. Knowing he had no other option, he killed the ball on the ground. Referee Wayne Barnes immediately reached for his yellow card and the centre was binned.

In that explosion of immense speed and determination Mafi illustrated why he has been holding down the outside-centre position. There have been quibbles about his tackling and his stated fondness for Justin Timberlake's music but the overall Palmerston package in tandem with Tipoki has noticably empowered Munster in attack.

"Yeah, yeah, I think Islanders are pretty fast; they have those fast-twitch fibres," he says, trying to avoid any phraseology that might couple him with self-regard.

"I think that was a do-or-die movement (tackling Peel). If they scored that try we were finished. I didn't want to give up. When I got him I was relieved but I knew I had to do something else to slow the ball.

"I don't see myself as aggressive. I just try to do things at the right time, try to make the right decisions at the right time.

"If I need to be aggressive, I need to be calm. Especially in rucks you need to be aggressive but out wide you need to be crisp on your passing - you need to be calm. Aggression at the right times."

Life is Munster now. For the next couple of years he hopes his dreams will revolve around Munster dreams. His contract expires at the end of this season but he openly wants more of the life. When he left New Zealand he knew he was breaking a relationship because as soon as he accepted the euro for the dollar, New Zealand cut him out of their thinking.

"I was coming here for game time. That was the main reason," he explains. "I didn't want to stay in New Zealand and be on the bench again. This was the right move for me. As soon as you leave New Zealand, you're not eligible, so I'm not really fussed. That was part of my decision making, cutting myself off."

Tipoki, Mafi and this weekend Howlett too. Yes, the whisperers are correct. This is Munster doing sexy with a touch of the exotic. "Law-Fame-Mee" smiles. He has found a comfortable place.

"Munster are a proud team. There is a lot of pride in the jersey and a lot of pride in the fans in us," he says. "That comes out and that's a big difference. There's more pride playing in the jersey in Munster than playing with the Hurricanes back home. That was one of the reasons I came here."

And now he speaks Munster too.

What next?