Every member of England's World Cup team has a first anniversary story to tell. For some, like Martin Johnson and Jason Leonard, there are illustrious careers to mull over, while Jonny Wilkinson's spirals skywards like a sweetly-struck torpedo punt. There are one or two players, though, the Leicester lock Ben Kay among them, who do not have an autobiography out.
Ironically, though, Kay's tale is among the most thought-provoking and relevant to English rugby at this precise moment. Amid all the ups and downs since England kicked off their victorious campaign against Georgia in Perth a year ago this weekend, the 28-year-old has had it tougher than most, his form deserting him to the extent he endured sleepless nights.
Then, just as his batteries were starting to recharge, his father Sir John Kay, the distinguished judge, died suddenly in the summer at the age of 60. Try telling Kay junior that post-Sydney life has been one long party.
Of late, there have even been people discussing his Test career in the past tense. He starts against Bath today and this is a watershed contest: if he and Johnson fail to deal with Steve Borthwick and Danny Grewcock in the lineout, he knows the acting England head coach Andy Robinson will take due note.
"Robbo's told us he's looking at it," says Kay, sitting on a freezer at Leicester's training ground as if to stress his desire to play it cool. "I can't wait."
The good news, as he contemplates the all-important aerial duel, is that the twinkle in Kay's eye which went missing in the second half of last season is conspicuously back. While the competition in his position is now so savage that even his club place is not secure, a depleted England cannot afford players of his value simply to melt away.
What the 6ft 6in forward offers, at his best, is not just a physical presence but a rare mental agility and a reassuring temperament. He is also mature enough to know the past few difficult months may have contained one or two blessings in disguise.
Among them was his omission from England's summer tour. "I was disappointed at the time because I really wanted to go but I feel a lot fresher now," he says.
Had he gone, moreover, he would have had the trauma of flying 12,000 miles home from Brisbane to be at his father's bedside. "At least I was able to have a week with him, while he was in intensive care, to say my goodbyes. I'm still finding it extremely tough but I did at least have pre-season training to throw myself into. I couldn't think about it because I was on my hands and knees breathing out of my arse."
Yet now, suddenly, he is back in the right place at the right time. Leicester's performance at Newcastle last weekend was among the best club displays of recent years and their pack were irresistible. Kay, then a second-half replacement, appreciated it more than most. "It felt like we were back to the Leicester of three or four years ago. You could see in the opposition's faces they were panicking under pressure. It just felt great to be part of that."
Leicester's switch from Dean Richards to John Wells, a big influence since Kay's arrival as a 23-year-old from Waterloo in 1999, has also proved helpful - "The changes that have gone on here have been fantastic for me. I'm a lot happier about rugby" - and he insists he still wants to play at the next World Cup in 2007.
Kay enjoys photography but one does not need a powerful lens to sense a more contented soul who accepts his own and England's recent failings. "We were too scared about losing," he sighed, reviewing last season's Six Nations slide. "If you're simply playing not to lose at Test level you get found out. The desire was there but maybe we made mistakes in the goals we set ourselves."
If he yearns to play for England this autumn, however, there can be no airy-fairy line-out work against Bath. Leices ter are aiming to become the first Premiership side to register a try bonus point in five successive matches but Bath love to suffocate opponents at set-pieces. The Liverpool-born Kay, meanwhile, has grown even warier of lineout advice from people who would not know a quality jumper from a cashmere cardigan.
"It always makes me laugh when people talk about the lineout as if it is some exact science. It's not. Things go wrong, sometimes you'll win balls which you haven't called. It's not a science, it's an art." Or a rogues' gallery, if Borthwick and Grewcock get their way. Kay flashes a slightly twisted grin. "Leicester v Bath is huge anyway but to be playing against those two just adds spice."
Win or lose, Kay also deserves applause for proclaiming that professional players need not always adhere to an austere outlook. Not for one moment is he suggesting Wilkinson is the wrong man to captain England - "I would have been very surprised had it not been Jonny" - but he also wants those young fans attending tomorrow's Scrum in the Park in Regent's Park, London, to be aware of rugby's social delights.
Last weekend, for example, he tucked in enthusiastically - "I had an extra saveloy" - when Leicester called in at a fish-and-chip shop en route back from the north-east and believes it did the squad nothing but good. "There are still things you can do to hark back to the good old days and one bag of fish and chips isn't going to send you over the scales.
"Jonny's the first to admit he's a certain type but if we force the way he does it on to all the young kids coming through, they'll lose interest in the game. If you imposed his lifestyle on a genius like Geordan Murphy you'd take away what's he's about."
If this sounds like a plea on behalf of English rugby's more fun-loving element, Kay cheerfully pleads guilty. "George Chuter's wife is organising a post-match fancy-dress party with a Music Legends theme. I've got to persuade Johnno we should go as the Cheeky Girls." Leicester sounds the place to be today, for at least two reasons.
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