Paul's pursuit of England return driven by the zeal of a convert

Kingsholm. It is not a name to make the pulse quicken of anyone who is not a supporter of Gloucester Rugby Union Football Club. It is an unlovely sort of place, in an unlovely part of the city, yet on the morning I visit, the October sunshine, and the sight of the distant cathedral, almost moves me to lyricism, especially when the sun catches the silver boots of Henry Paul, Gloucester's fly-half, who is practising his kicking for this afternoon's big match at Kingsholm, the Heineken European Cup fixture against last season's losing finalists, Munster.

"I'm raring to go," says Paul, when morning training finally winds up. We are sitting in the main stand, opposite the Shed, Kingsholm's answer to the Stretford End. He gestures towards it. "This is the reason why I came to rugby union, these big games, the big crowds. The European Cup is awesome rugby; watching the finals of this competition has been awesome. Hopefully, we can really get our heads down and work on at least getting into the semis. Munster are a crack alpha outfit with great players, like Rob Henderson. But it's not really about them. And for them it's not about us. For each of us, it's about getting our game plan going."

Paul, like his old Wigan team-mate Jason Robinson, is a convert from rugby league, another manifestation of the new order which has league stars defecting to union rather than the other way around. Like Robinson, he was a sensation in rugby league, to which, as a New Zealander, he brought an element of exoticism. And exoticism is a rare thing in Wakefield, Wigan and Bradford, where he so brilliantly plied his trade.

Unlike Robinson, however, he has not been the sensation in rugby union that most enthusiasts were expecting. It is said (although he hotly denies it) that he was tempted to change codes in part with money provided by the Rugby Football Union, who were anxious to fast-track him into the England team (conveniently, his maternal grandfather was born in Liverpool, before emigrating at the age of 16).

But first things first. I invite Paul – a handsome young fellow, and articulate with it – to tell me how he came to grow up playing league rather than union. "Because we lived in West Auckland, which is a rugby league stronghold. Funnily enough, Graham Henry was the principal at Calston Boys Grammar, just down the road, but I went to a different school, where we played league. Auckland is big enough for both codes to thrive. I loved watching the All Blacks, but I always wanted to be a Kiwi. My real heroes were in rugby league; Dean Bell, Clayton Friend, Mark Graham ..." His mother was a teacher, father a taxi-driver. "We were a pretty modest working-class family, but my brother [Robbie, who still plays for Bradford Bulls] and I never wanted for anything, and mum and dad took us to every training session. They're still there. They come over here every year, for six or eight weeks, to watch us both play, but they'd never been out of the country until my brother and I came to England." Paul himself had been out of New Zealand once, on a softball tour of North America, but still it was a shock to the system when, aged 18, he arrived in England as captain of the Junior Kiwi touring side. "What I remember most was how cold it was," he says. Still, he overcame his frostbite to play blinder after blinder, and so impressed Wakefield that they invited him to stay for the last four months of the season to help them avoid relegation.

Auckland to Wakefield, I venture, must have been quite a leap for a teenager?

"Yeah, the club gave me a flat but I was homesick. Then one of the lads at the club, Kieran, asked me round to dinner at his mum and dad's, and they said I could stay with them if I could work it out for the club to pay my rent. Keith and Margaret became my British mum and dad. I'm still in touch with them all the time. And after that I liked Wakefield. It's quite a buzzing place. The club only had about 3,000 fans, but they were a hard-core bunch. You could feel it in the town when things were going well."

In the course of Wakefield's escape from relegation, they beat mighty Wigan, who duly offered Paul a contract. At first his club in New Zealand, Auckland Warriors, refused to let him go, but eventually he was released in a trade-off involving Andy Platt.

"And I became part of a million-dollar squad; they had Andy Farrell, Inga [Tuigamala], Shaun Edwards, Martin Offiah, Jason Robinson, just a phenomenal team. The challenges were different from the ones at Wakefield. Wigan had always won stuff, so the challenge was to keep up the momentum."

He helped them do so, triumphantly. In his first season at Central Park, 1995-96, they won all four major trophies. "I lived in Shevington, near Standish. I couldn't understand them, and they couldnt understand me, but it was great getting crowds of 20,000 for the big home games. And I did a lot of stuff with Inga. He always picked me up for training, talked rugby to me all the time, told me about his All Blacks days. And his wife looked after my partner [now the mother of his young son, Theo, although she and Theo have since moved back to New Zealand, a situation he firmly declines to talk about]."

When Wigan, astonishingly, vacillated over an extension to Paul's contract, he decided to join Bradford Bulls, where Robbie was already established. "I liked the idea of playing with my brother, and I thought Bradford were on the verge of doing something great; they'd turned up in a couple of finals, and had some good young players. So I went to Bradford and won trophies there too."

All the while, however, the possibility of a switch in codes was nagging away. While at Wigan, he and Robinson had spent several months on loan to Bath following the cross-code challenge between the two clubs. It was not a period Paul enjoyed very much – Bath's squad rotation policy frustrated him – but still it had whetted his appetite for the 15-man game. Last season, when the time came to renegotiate his contract at Bradford, he decided to make his move.

"I was of an age, 27, when if I was ever going to play union, I had to do it properly. Sale were good, and Leeds, although it would have been hard to play for Leeds being a Bradford lad [this delivered in a still-broad New Zealand accent] but Gloucester was the only club I seriously considered and who also wanted me."

With the help of RFU money? "No," he says sharply. "It's Gloucester who pay my wages." And the England coach, Clive Woodward, didn't help to persuade him to switch? "No, Clive didn't talk to me until after I had moved to Gloucester." None the less, Woodward doubtless expected great things, yet great things were not immediately forthcoming, not least because Paul and the Gloucester coach, Philippe Saint-André, did not hit it off.

"Philippe had a great passion for the club, but his man management was not the greatest. It was not what I wanted. I needed one-on-one stuff. If I was going to play fly-half, I needed to do lots of repetitive kicking, the quick snap-kick, over and over again until I was sick of it.

"Union and league are the same in that you still run forwards, pass backwards, and score a try over a white line, but in between there are lots of nuances. The physical contact is different. In union, you hit the ruck and keep fighting, keep fighting. In league, you hit, you're down, you're up, you're back. In a typical game of rugby league, at stand-off, I'd probably make 25 to 30 tackles and kick the ball maybe nine times at the most, but in union I'd be kicking 40 times and only making five or 10 tackles."

Now that Saint-André has left, and Nigel Melville is the new director of rugby, Paul is much happier at Gloucester, who are riding high at the top of the Premiership. He has played for England, in the winning Hong Kong Sevens side, and also as a replacement for Mike Tindall at the Stade de France in the 20-15 Six Nations defeat earlier this year. But still there is the perception that he has under-achieved. Does this rile him?

"No," he says, clearly riled. "I've got expectations of myself. It means nothing to me what other people's expectations are. Gloucester are doing well, not because of me but a good team effort. I've won the Hong Kong Sevens, the first time for 22 years that a northern hemisphere country has won the thing. I've played in my first full international. I know people say I'm not as good as I was in league, but if my coach is happy, I'm happy. I'm aware of the expectations, but I've had pressure like that since I was 18.

"People say it's been hard following in Jason's footsteps, but I don't compare myself to him. If I beat my opponent then I'm doing my job, and most days I do that."

There is talk up north that he might be contemplating a move back to rugby league. Would he like to comment? "Yeah, I can totally quash that rumour.

"There's no chance in hell. I love it here. I love the banter with the fans, who know their rugby so well. They stop me in the street and say 'HP, you made a mistake on Saturday' and they know what I did wrong, even if it was something little. Why would I want to leave a winning club, where there are great fans, where I have great mates?"

Why indeed? "My intention is to get back into the England set-up," he continues. "Clive talks to me, says to keep up my form, play well and you never know. That England match against France was a tough day at the office, but the atmosphere was awesome. I got into space a couple of times but lost the ball, which was frustrating, and the result sucked, but it was still a proud day for me.

"My ambition is to get back in the squad for the autumn internationals, and if not then the Six Nations, and if not then the World Cup. And if I'm playing well for Gloucester then it will help, but it won't guarantee anything. I've been in this game long to know that it still might not happen, and if it doesn't then I'm not going to spit out my dummy."

Bravely put, although whatever he says I still sense that the perceptions of under-achievement are getting to him. This afternoon would be a good time for those silver boots to twinkle again.

The life and times of Henry Paul

Name: Henry Rangi Paul

Born: 10 February 1974, Tokoroa, New Zealand

Height: 5ft 11in

Weight: 15st

Position: Utility back

Current Club: Gloucester (rugby union)

Nickname: Sauce

Former Clubs: Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (rugby league), Wigan Warriors (rugby league), Bradford Bulls (rugby league).

Known for: First made his name in rugby league with Wakefield. After some fine performances, joined Super League rivals Wigan, where he enjoyed a string of success. Paul was part of the Wigan side that won the treble in 1995, of Challenge Cup, Super League and Regal Trophy. While at Wigan the success continued, as the club stamped their domination on the Premiership, winning back-to-back championships and the Grand Final in 1998. Paul then joined up with younger brother, Robbie, at Bradford Bulls, where his success continued, the club establishing themselves as the most feared team in Super League. In July 2001, he switched codes and joined rugby union side Gloucester.

Domestic Honours: Throughout Henry Paul's distinguished rugby league career he won: Super league Championship, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001; Grand Final, 1998; Challenge Cup, 1995, 2000; Regal Trophy, 1995

Hobbies: Away from rugby, Paul enjoys playing golf, tennis and basketball. He also enjoys listening to music

He says: 'It was a proud moment when I ran out in the England shirt and I have no regrets about moving to Gloucester.'

They say: 'I'm a big rugby league fan and I've watched him in awe, so it's a bit of a strange feeling to see him here and I thrilled that he is joining us.' Phil Vickery, Gloucester and England prop forward.

Research: Peter Dowdall