Superstar, over here superstar. What's your name again?

The rite of initiation commenced down on The Farm in Bishopstown. His new team-mates were called into a circle and introduced to New Zealand's record try scorer. "Boys come and meet Dougie!" The bullets quickly started whizzing by his temple.

"Jeez Deccie, anyone watching the car park?"

"Frankie, have you windscreen cover?"

"Might be best to move any BMWs to a safe place lads ... "

Boys will be boys. If Doug Howlett saw himself as a blossom, that first day with Munster would find out just how precious. His video apology (distributed by the New Zealand Rugby Union) for an early-morning "little bit of tomfoolery" in a Heathrow hotel car park had -- at the time -- become a YouTube favourite.

Think of it as Tiger-lite now, because the guy was all but seen as a secular saint at home.

Picked by Graham Henry to play for his province while still in Auckland Grammar School; head prefect and captain of the school athletics team; a sub-11 seconds 100 metres sprinter; scorer of two tries on his All Blacks debut; scorer of a hat-trick on his first time out in Super 12; the founder of an 'Outreach Foundation' for under-privileged kids.

And, suddenly, his mortified face was being beamed across the world, mouthing words of apology for criminal damage drunkenly inflicted on a car.

So, that day of introductions in Cork pretty much leaked all formality in an instant. Anthony Horgan remembers. "There's nothing held back in a Munster squad and we were straight into him. He was absolutely hammered.

"And you could see straight away from his reaction that he was sound. Some people could be a bit bitter about that, but he just took it all on the chin."

Howlett would have known that his 49 tries in 62 Tests weren't likely to spawn much deference in a Munster dressing-room. After all, the man he had replaced as the All Blacks' most prolific try-scorer trod this very path before him without conspicuous success.

Christian Cullen's time with Munster is remembered warmly and fondly. But there was no fairytale conversion from Southern Hemisphere superstar to giant of the north.

In a sense, the circumstances of Cullen's arrival in Ireland had mirrored those of Howlett's. Cullen's controversial omission by John Mitchell from New Zealand's 2003 World Cup squad had, essentially, signaled the end of his All Blacks' career at the age of 27. And, likewise, Howlett's failure to make Henry's match-day 22 for the RWC quarter-final against France four years later bore an equally plenary message.

Cullen admits that he watched the '03 tournament, wanting "the players to do well, but not the coaches." Howlett concedes that his only comfort while watching that '07 defeat was the knowledge he had done everything he could. "Of course, I was devastated," he recalled. "But I was saying to myself that I was playing good rugby and I couldn't do any more."

So, they both arrived a little wounded and aggrieved. And there the similarities end.

Cullen always looked an exotic bird with a broken wing over here, but Howlett's assimilation into the Munster way proved seamless. Indeed, his recent decision to sign a contract extension to the end of next season finally put paid to any fanciful notions that he might return home in an effort to regain Henry's favour. Howlett will be 33 by next year's World Cup and knows that Henry has the options now that all but render him an antiquity.

Furthermore, if the role he now fulfils with Munster remains a pivotal one, it hasn't been headline-grabbing. Famously, he went almost five full games before scoring his first try for the province (and that from a forward pass) and he has certainly been less than prolific since.

For a man who averaged four points per game in his All Blacks career, a return of less than a try in every four outings for Munster might, ostensibly, look disappointing. Yet, the breadth and efficacy of Howlett's game have been such that supporters, generally, brook no criticism of the man.

Horgan, the province's record try-scorer, explains. "When I started playing for Munster, you know we were nearly told never to venture in off the wing, just to stay out there. It was a very different kind of game we played.

"Now the wingers are far more involved in general play and we've all seen what Dougie is capable of doing. His work rate is phenomenal.

"When Munster sign players, if they don't fit in, they're pretty much gone in six to 12 months, no matter how good they are. But Dougie just slotted in.

"You might say he hasn't been prolific and, coming over here as leading try-scorer for New Zealand, he was probably hoping to continue that. But I suppose over the last 15 years or so, Munster wingers don't seem to get on the scoresheet that often.

"That said, you can't help notice Dougie's work-rate and professionalism. You'll see him in the gym on afternoons when he doesn't have to be there. It's scary. His attitude is just absolutely superb. Every game is the same, 100pc preparation. His professionalism is frightening."

John Kelly, who made 67 European appearances in a Munster shirt, remembers one moment from the '08 Heineken Cup final as a gloriously illustrative flash of Howlett's quality. It resulted in a disallowed try, yet blazed with such urgent brilliance that Kelly's breath was thieved.

"He (Howlett) didn't know the whistle was gone and just burned through the Toulouse defenders," remembers Kelly. "I know the try didn't count, but, in that moment, you could see how good he was. The thing that impresses me is that his work ethic is always strong. He's settled into life in Ireland and that's important when you come to Munster. That you buy into the whole ethos.

"It's vital when you come in that you do make a big effort. Guys like him and Jim Williams and Christian Cullen and John Langford just bought into the work ethic. That would be appreciated and respected."

Married to Monique and with a two-year-old son, Charles, the family live in Cork, where they have immersed themselves in life, Doug even finding himself taken with the local GAA antipathy for all things green and gold. It seems a Corkman's take on Kerry pretty much equates to a Kiwi's view of a Wallaby.

Howlett would relate, too, to the sense of place fostered by Gaelic football and hurling.

If New Zealand Union routinely gets a bad press for its pillaging of the South Pacific islands, there remains a simple purity to their devotion to the game. Howlett once recalled that day, as a schoolboy, he made his debut for Auckland Province alongside the likes of Sean Fitzpatrick and Zinzan Brooke.

"You prepare yourself for it," he said. "Everybody follows it. You walk down to the dairy and your local shopkeeper will say, 'Oh, you dropped that ball!' or 'You missed that tackle!'

"It's a little tough in that sense. For a young bloke, coming into the thing, there's a lot of weight -- what's been before you, what you have to live up to. We respect what's been before us, but, as we see it, it's our time in the jersey and we want to leave our legacy in it."

He speaks of a tradition easily reconciled with Munster's 'To the brave and faithful, nothing is impossible' motto. And Horgan now believes that Howlett's decision to commit his future to Munster speaks volumes.

He suggests: "If he wasn't enjoying it, he wouldn't be hanging around. I know that there's a money issue involved in all these decisions, but it says a lot for the Munster ethos that he is hanging around for another year."

They tested his chin that day in The Farm. And came upon solid stone.

Irish Independent