Like ships passing in the night, the fates have so far decreed that thanks to an unfortunate sequence of injuries Jeremy Davidson and Malcolm O'Kelly have rarely locked horns together. In fact their elevation to the Irish team has in turn been due to the other's misfortune, and as very good friends, neither of them would have wanted it this way.

Two seasons ago, O'Kelly suffered a broken ankle, and no sooner were the two players finally in harness together at London Irish than Davidson suffered his cruciate knee ligament injury. Now O'Kelly's injury brings to an end his run of 12 successive Test starts in Davidson's absence.

So it wasn't just platitudes when questions of his delight at a recall provoked a suitably empathic response. "Malcolm O'Kelly is a very good friend and while I'm disappointed for him, hopefully I can play as well as him. It's great to be back, it's just a pity about the circumstances."

The feeling will be widespread, given O'Kelly is a popular member of the squad. However there'll also be widespread delight that the infectiously enthusiastic Davidson has not only ended his long sabbatical, but hasn't felt better since his injury either.

"I've started all the matches lately and I'm not playing too bad," he says in a relaxed manner. "I'm getting about the park a lot more and my legs aren't troubling me at all," he adds, stretching them out on the table in front of him.

Indeed, so good has his form been of late that it prompted a mystified Thomas Casteignede to wonder aloud why Davidson hasn't been in the starting team before now. And this was before Davidson whacked him with a big tackle in training a couple of weeks ago, with the out-half retorting that Davidson wasn't to repeat the trick in Lansdowne Road.

It certainly seems as if Davidson is in a more professional environment, if experiencing something of a culture shock both on the pitch and off it.

"It's completely different rugby and a completely different life. It's great to get back to these squad sessions and then after them it's good to get back to the peace and tranquillity over there," he adds, although you're not completely convinced he's entirely at home with such tranquillity. "It's a whole new experience and I'm glad I've done it."

Generally, the move to Castres has been an eye-opener. "There's a lot of back-up staff," he says.

His average day involves a French class in the morning - he readily ordered a taxi to the airport for this journalist earlier in the season fairly fluently - followed by weights and rowing in the afternoon and club training in the evening.

Explaining the difference in rugby styles, he says: "There's not that much rucking over there. It's a lot more fluent and there's a lot more dirt and a lot more handling in the rucks." And the dirt, for example? "If you're at the bottom of a ruck, you have to be well ready to get a knee in the head."

Watching Ulster from afar has, he admits, made him a bit misty-eyed. "I still have an option on a second year, but obviously the way Ulster have gone I'd love to be back playing in Ireland, but I'll wait and I'll see how it goes with Castres. Our season hasn't really started yet, it's weird. In the French season you have to qualify for the second phase and then the rugby kicks off (around the end of February). There's so many Mickey Mouse games it doesn't really mean that much."

Partly because of this, allied to a propensity for firsts v seconds, full-contact training sessions on Tuesdays, there is widespread concern that the leading French players have lacked a competitive edge generally, while several have been sidelined for chunks of the season.

Davidson counters this argument by pointing out that "the strength in depth of French rugby is unbelievable. Every other French player who's playing, you think: `He's not bad'." Hence, he's not disappointed that France seem likely to stick with the established guard.

"I don't like saying it, I really don't, but I think we've got a good, a very good chance. To tell you the truth, it depends what frame of mind we go into the game with Saturday, but whenever France come to Dublin we usually get well stuck into them."

And there'll be one player who will be straining at the leash.