European Cup:Stan Wright's fable is one of how modern rugby occasionally operates at professional level, the chance and the whimsy involved in getting a player from one hemisphere and integrating him into a team in another hemisphere, another culture.

It's also a story of the decline of Irish propping - material perhaps for a university thesis but also something upon which Irish mothers could elaborate over morning coffee, a story involving worry about cauliflower ears and fear of injury, though not necessarily in that order.

The Cook Islander is a man with an infectious personality, and his delight with his good fortune is easy to warm to when the broad shoulders begin to heave.

Wright's penchant for chuckling his way through conversation has endured through his journey from obscurity to what is now a growing reputation in the Leinster frontrow.

The man roundly heckled in the media when he first arrived in Leinster's lap last season has bedded into a pack that for the first time in years is gaining genuine respect.

Jamie Heaslip, Leo Cullen and Bernard Jackman, among others, provide obvious reasons for the growing success.

But also step up, Wright, the man who had never heard of Leinster until an agent rang one weekend and asked him if he would like to play in Ireland.

"I was just building houses at home," he says, smiling. "It was a weekend, me, the missus and the kids just driving. He (the agent) said, 'Do you want to go and play rugby in Ireland?'"

"I said, 'It depends on who it is for and how long.'

"He said, 'It's Leinster.'

"I said, 'Who's Leinster?' I didn't really follow rugby on this side. I played rugby but I didn't really like watching it.

"He said, 'They play Heineken Cup.'

"I said, 'Heineken Cup? Yeah, yeah.'

"He said, 'Okay, I'll ring you back in two hours.'

"He rang and said, 'You've got to be there next Sunday.'

"The wife wasn't too fussed because she was going on maternity leave. She was just a bit p***ed off that I wouldn't be there for the baby."

And so the legend of Wright was born. He turned up to Leinster, leaving his pregnant partner back home. It was from everyone's point of view a case of stepping into something unknown.

It also illustrated how desperate was the Leinster head coach, Michael Cheika, for a prop who could do a job for him.

The Australian, Cheika, doubtless figured that if Wright was playing for Northland in the NPC and for Cook Islands he was bound to be a "big unit". The coach was correct.

But the 6ft 1in Wright was seen as a stop gap, yet the 29-year-old is back for another season - with "the missus" - and doing just fine as the province chart their way through what could be choppy seas this weekend against Edinburgh in their return European Cup pool match at Murrayfield.

It's a big one for Leinster that could be the defining point of their season. Their flaky away record is an added concern.

But big Stan Wright is unfazed by the challenge. For him chapter two of this two-hander is less fraught with fear than was the first leg at the RDS last Friday.

"We played (Edinburgh) back to back last year. I think it's better because I don't have to do as much scouting," he explains. "For me anyway, it's the same prop (the Scotland international Allan Jacobsen). I know all his tricks from the weekend before. I know what their strong points are.

"He has a lot of tricks with his binding, when to come in and when to stay out.

"I think our scrum was the better scrum in the end."

While the bonus-point issue rankled among fans at Ballsbridge, feeling Leinster had left something behind, Wright again goes against conventional wisdom with his disarming, carefree view.

"I wasn't disappointed we didn't get the bonus point," he says. "I wasn't worried whether we got it or not. A win's a win. A lot of the boys were happy we won."

But this weekend will a bonus point be on his mind?

"Nah," he says dismissively. "We'll just travel to win. We . . . said, 'Nah, don't worry about bonus points, just concentrate on winning the game'."

Last year the big islander struggled to insert himself into the Leinster system: the calls, the running, where he should be, what his functions were. This season he has been in from the start.

"The whole thing is we are starting to play as eight (players)," he says sagely.

And fitting in quite well now too, thank you.