Hunter up and running for England full-back berth

It will be a rare privilege to see Jonathan Davies and Robert Jones reunited at half-back for the Barbarians at Northampton this afternoon, but the really significant presence at Franklin's Gardens will be on the other side: that of the reluctant England wing and would-be full-back Ian Hunter.

After another of the protracted periods of inactivity - this one the most worrisome of all - that have dogged his career, Hunter's reappearance in a full Northampton side masquerading as East Midlands is an event to make Jack Rowell, the England manager, take careful notice. England want an attacking full-back? Northampton have one.

By next season, Hunter, 28, a graphic artist in Wellingborough, expects to be back in the international reckoning, although for now he will rest content with the pure pleasure of playing rugby again. Not long ago he could have been excused for wondering if he would; he was laid low by a virus in September which put him in hospital for a fortnight and caused him to lose a stone.

Given the multifarious mishaps that have befallen him since he first played for England, this was a final, cruel indignity. "It has given me a perspective on rugby and life," he philosophised yesterday. "There is, after all, more to life than sticking on a jersey and a pair of boots on a Saturday.

"I'm not fatalistic; I'm optimistic but also a realist, and I wouldn't dare imagine nothing else could go wrong. Rugby isn't a game where you can say you will never be injured again. I've been unfortunate and now, once again, I just want to get on with it."

Hunter first represented England, out of position on the wing, against Canada in October 1992, since when he had a knee injury followed by two operations, an eye injury, a dislocated shoulder which caused his return after a week of the 1993 Lions tour of New Zealand, a pulled hamstring and then more knee trouble which meant a third operation in 1994.

In consequence, he had to withdraw from that year's England tour of South Africa, going on to miss most of last season but still winning selection for the World Cup, where games against Western Samoa and France took him to seven caps, only one where he likes it at full-back. By the start of this season, he had never felt fitter.

Hunter takes up the sad story: "Because I had missed so much of last season, when I came back from the World Cup I decided to train hard without having any break. Things went really well until after our first league game against London Irish when I started feeling flu symptoms and having problems with my knee. A few days later I could barely get out of bed."

When Hunter then had keyhole surgery to check out the knee there was nothing wrong, but the flu symptoms lingered and when he attempted to resume training his temperature shot up and he was admitted to hospital with what was initially thought to be a post- surgical infection.

"Instead, they found I had a virus and all I could do was rest totally. They couldn't give me any time-scale; it was completely unpredictable and could have taken four or five days, four or five weeks or four or five months to clear up. At the same time, my weight went down from 15st to 14.

"The harder you train, the lower your immune system afterwards, leaving you susceptible while you are recovering to picking things up because you have exhausted all the energy in your body. There had been a virus going round the club and I duly picked it up. What a virus will do is attack the weakest area of your body - that's why both my knees were affected."

Hunter has never been anything but resilient - he has had to be - and a return to light training by the end of December was followed by a gentle reintroduction to rugby training by the end of January and full training in mid-February. After two comeback games for the Northampton second team, an appearance in last Friday's pre-international win at Gala brought him a try and two conversions.

Today, the profile rises and if this is not yet the beginning of a revived ambition, then next season - when North- ampton will be back in the First Division - most certainly will be. "I was disappointed not to have a chance at full-back in the World Cup and I still have to prove I am worthy of being selected there," he said. "But I believe without a shadow of a doubt that at my best I can win a place as England full-back.

"I'm not expecting to go out and set the world alight against the Barbarians, because I'm not at that level. But in the new professional game the selectors cannot afford to ignore people playing to the best of their ability, and my belief is that if I'm playing like that week in week out for Northampton next season, I should get selected." Are you listening, Jack Rowell?