For those who fear that success has passed them by, Guy Easterby is a source of hope and inspiration. A farmer cum amateur rugby player until he was 27, the 29-year-old scrum-half has taken his time before stealthily making it into the Test arena.

Though he played for the Irish Exiles in the early 1990s, the elder brother of the Irish Easterbys remained for the most part out of sight and out of mind with unfashionable clubs during the last decade. His career probably would have stayed that way - contentedly enough mind - were it not for the change of attitude which professionalism brought about.

"I probably stayed too long at some of the junior clubs I was at, so I didn't really test myself until I was 27, when I went to London Scottish. I think it was sort of half my fault and half the advent of professionalism as well. There was a lot more loyalty when I first started playing so that probably had a lot to do with it."

Reared mid-way between York and Leeds, and half-an-hour from Harrogate (where he first started playing at school), Easterby worked on the family farm. His mother hailed from Blackrock, Stradbrook Road to be precise, and he still has a brother and other relations living in Dublin, so there was always an Irish rugby heritage of sorts as well as summer and Christmas holidays there.

Though he broke into the Harrogate team in Division Three at 18, he abandoned rugby to chill out in Australia for a year. "Just messed around really, didn't play any rugby or anything. From about 20 to 25 I played at Harrogate, where I enjoyed my rugby without really testing myself."

From there Easterby went to Rotherham, where they came within a whisker of promotion from the second division only to lose to London Irish in a two-legged play-off. "Then London Scottish came in for myself and the outhalf Simon Binns. We did really well to stay up on a shoestring squad, and it was really disappointing when the club were beaten by the system (and put out of business)."

Yet, mentally as much as technically, his two seasons at London Scottish were the making of him. "You wonder whether you're going to be good enough to do it at that level but you soon find out whether you are or you aren't. Though we were getting well beaten early on I was still doing okay and getting picked every week. We beat Bath one week and I played well, so that got my confidence up. Then we stuffed Saracens away over Christmas and that's when I got called into the Five Nations squad last year."

London Scottish had also put Easterby in the shop window, and a number of offers came in, amongst them Sale. "But I was very wary of having another year worrying about whether I was going to get paid at the end of the month." So he opted for Ebbw Vale. Curiously, the Yorkshire-reared Irish brothers both played in Wales last season and next season the bond will be even stronger, as Guy is moving from Ebbw Vale to play with Simon at Llanelli.

"Everyone says Rupert Moon is there and stuff, and you might wonder about your place. But the reason I've done so well this season is because the Welsh reserve scrumhalf is at Ebbw Vale as well. So literally every time you walked on the pitch you knew that if you didn't play your best you weren't going to be in for the next game."

Playing for Ireland had been an ambition since Easterby had played for the Exiles when he was 21, so much so that when he was picked to play for England A four years later he turned them down. "In my head I had committed myself to Ireland once I started playing for the Exiles in the interpros."

Finally, after five A caps, culminating in a very impressive outing in Ireland's win over England A in Franklins Gardens, five stints on the bench for Peter Stringer and some ribbing from the younger brother who got there first, his day has come.

Last Tuesday morning manager Brian O'Brien pre-empted the team announcement by saying two new caps had been selected. "Then they read Tyrone Howe's name out, so you're thinking, `well I've got a 5050 chance here'. I didn't hear any names after mine. Having been playing rugby such a long time, and been involved in the squad so long, to hear your name read out is tremendous."

A relatively experienced debutant and a good decision-maker with a sound service and a physical presence, there are few doubts that he'll settle in quickly.

"I hope that I can just fit in exactly the same as Strings. It's important for me that I gain the respect of the players around me. I've played with a lot of them but not for very long, and in the position I play that's vital.

"I hope I have a steady game, and keep control of the game as a link between the forwards and the backs, that it goes smoothly and we come away with the win which we need desperately."

The Irish management have opted to play the uncapped Geordan Murphy instead of Dominic Crotty at full back for tomorrow's test against the USA in Manchester, New Hampshire. Murphy arrived a day ahead of Crotty this week and the ankle injury which delayed and threatened his participation has not hindered him.