He's giving it a go as an obstetrician for the next couple of weeks, he's already had a go at psychiatry and next up he'll be a GP. A little taste of everything, just so he'll know. A couple more hours of hands on experience logged down, he trained with Leinster at Lansdowne Road, sat down for this interview and he still has a date with his girlfriend Paula, in her eighth month of pregnancy, at Blackrock Clinic before it's time to down tools.

He has a lot on his mind but you get the sense with Contepomi, the busier he is, the more the mind and body are ticking over, the more you get from him. His rugby this season will stand this assertion up. Here's a snapshot.

Nineteen points in the home defeat to Bath in the Heineken Cup. Twenty-three points against Bourgoin at home, 16 against them away from home. Twenty-five points against Munster at home in the Celtic League. You're probably beginning to get an idea, but statistics alone only touch on his true worth. If there's one player that encapsulates Leinster so far this season, one player that's summed up their philosophy and what they're trying to achieve, it's Contepomi.

There's a freedom about his play that appears to have been planted, or maybe even allowed to evolve in his head by Michael Cheika and David Knox and has spread through him to the rest of the team.

Perhaps the best contrast you can draw on is how the Argentinean performed under Declan Kidney, and how he's performing now. Chalk and cheese doesn't do the disparity justice. "Yes, I don't think Declan liked me as a player but I don't blame him for that, " says Contepomi without a hint of irony. "Some coaches like a player, others don't but I don't think it was anything personal. But Michael Cheika and David Knox have seen something in me and they've given me a certain freedom on the pitch, as they have the rest of the players. It's refreshing, refreshing for me because we're playing the game the way I feel it should be played.

It's something that's going to take time but anyone who's watched us throughout the season would have to say we've progressed from week one until now. Some weeks it's only been a slight improvement but every game we've taken something new out of it."

His assertions are bang on the money here and his views on today's must-win game against Bath are almost word for word those of his coach.

Talk about singing from the same hymn sheet. "It's important that we win, of course, but it's probably more important that we're true to the way we play the game, " he says. "In some games this season we've won or come close to winning but we didn't do ourselves any sort of justice.

Take the game against Llanelli a couple of weeks back where we could have drawn the game with a conversion, or maybe even won it over the 80 minutes. We didn't play the way we wanted to play that night and had we won the game, I really believe everybody in the whole squad would still have been disappointed. Against Bath there is something bigger at work than simply winning."

You can't help but be enthralled by the passion with which he speaks, the way he goes about his business. His natural Latino joie de vivre is probably amplified when juxtaposed with the monotone interaction of everyday Dublin life but still, when he talks you listen, especially about a topic that few believe capable of evoking any kind of passion. That hoary old chestnut, Leinster rugby.

"I don't believe in this Dublin 4 or Leinster softie stuff and I'll tell you why, " he offers as the eyes light up.

"I've been here two-and-ahalf years now, I've trained with my teammates at sessions, I've played with them in games and never once have I seen somebody not give 100 per cent effort or try their hardest. I think it's lazy for people to label Leinster with all these tags. It's bullshit to say we don't care. People say Munster rugby is passionate and Leinster rugby isn't but these are two different rugby cultures, two contrasts. Down in Munster they play a forward-orientated game and that naturally lends itself to the physical stuff which people see as passion. We play a different type of game up here and just because it's not as attritional we're labelled as softies. It's silly."

As for the province's support, Contepomi is unequivocal about their worth.

"We're doing well. We've had 10,000 plus at all our Heineken Cup games this season and there's not many teams in the Premiership in England that have managed that. I believe the Leinster support are changing. I know people from Galway and people from other parts of Leinster who have told me in the past they support Munster and that they travel to support them. But that is beginning to change, I know because people have told me they are going to watch Leinster now and if we keep playing rugby a certain way, more people will come watch us.

We have a core support that follow us everywhere, this might offend people but it's a much smaller core than what Munster have, but they're still a core and over time they will get bigger. It won't happen from one day to the next but gradually it will happen."

They should put Contepomi and his words on billboards to draw the crowds.

Maybe even a rallying-call advertisement showing his try-scoring celebrations.

After scoring that delicious chipped try against Munster on New Year's Eve, he stood in front of the stand behind the posts and cupped his hands around his ears. He finds it difficult to explain exactly why his hands ended up there, but it was all in the name of letting off steam. "I'm not sure what I did but it was a big game, there was a great atmosphere and I had just scored a crucial try. In situations like that you have to celebrate, you have to give the crowd something back. It's one of the few situations in a game where you get an opportunity to connect directly with the supporters and that's what I did. I come from a soccer background in Argentina and it's natural for me to celebrate when I score a try."

The refreshing attitude he has towards Leinster and the game itself, you feel, comes from the perspective he gains from the other side of his life at Beaumont Hospital. He makes up the 20 hours a week of his attachment in some way or other, whether fitting it around training, or at times, forgoing team fitness sessions to clock up the hours on the ward, and then catching up on his own while all his teammates are at home. In many ways, you'd say he's bringing too much on himself but he confesses that he needs the mix to keep himself some way sane.

"It helps me, I need that balance in my life. It can't be rugby, rugby, rugby and at the same time it can't be medicine, medicine, medicine. I need a mix. I try my very best not to miss any team sessions at all, especially stuff like meetings and I've missed very few this year. I tend to do fitness sessions on my own at times and if I miss video sessions, I generally catch up on things later on with either Michael or David. It means I'm very busy all week long but I get a buzz out of it. I much prefer to be out and about on the wards than sitting down and studying.

There's so much of that to do but it's a vital side of being a doctor because you have to know your stuff or else you're no use to anyone. Still, on the wards interacting is the best way to learn for a number of different reasons, not just medical. In the Leinster rugby scene, I deal with mainly upper-class people but as a doctor in Beaumont I get to talk and deal with people from all the classes. It's a different side to things and I love the variety. It helps me switch off from rugby, sure, but I don't think all this makes me a better rugby player, probably more a better person."

There'll be another side to his life when young Contepomi arrives next month. Himself and Paula are expecting a girl but despite the technology, you still can't be certain, the trainee doctor in him confirms. It brings thoughts of family back home. His father, the doctor. His band of four brothers, made up of a priest, economist, rock journalist and marketing guru.

His three sisters, a music teacher and physiotherapist amongst them, and then the three other boys and one girl whom his family cared for when their father died in a plane crash.

"I miss them all very much and I miss Argentina a lot, like anyone who lives away from home, but this is where my life is now, " says Contepomi. "Here, when the baby comes, is where I start my new family. I'll be here until I finish my medical training [another year and a half ] and then I'll see. But I'll definitely return home to live in Argentina at some stage." But for now home is the RDS, Donnybrook, Riverview, Old Belvedere, the Royal College of Surgeons, Beaumont Hospital; the places where he practices his trades and tweaks his passions.

Oh yes, and this afternoon, the Rec.

LEINSTER'S FINAL DAY BLUES BIARRITZ 30 LEINSTER 10

20 January 2001, Parc des Sports Aguilera Following a disastrous 34-34 draw with Edinburgh at Donnybrook, Leinster had the unenviable task of having to earn a draw or win away to Biarritz on the last day of the pool stages in order to qualify for the quarter-"nals of the competition. They hung on in there for the first-half . . . the 93 interval lead for Biarritz was more than surmountable . . . but after the restart the home side showed their superiority.

Tries from flankers Christophe Milheres and Serge Betsen sealed the deal for the French side, while Leinster were left to rue the 15-point half-time lead they let slip against Edinburgh the previous week. An exceptional opportunity squandered.

BIARRITZ 32 LEINSTER 21

31 January 2004, Parc des Sports Aguilera Another crucial game for Leinster, another feeble defeat. At one point in the second half the visitors were 32-7 behind in a game that they needed two points from to secure qualification. The irony of the whole afternoon was that they almost pulled it off, as unlikely as that may sound. Following a first-half penalty try awarded for a late tackle on Brian O'Meara, a late effort from Girvan Dempsey and a try in injury time from Keith Gleeson left Leinster one try short of achieving their goal. The upsetting thing was that John McWeeney had dropped the ball going over the line in the opening half. Had he held on to it, his team would have been through. "It's not going to be much fun when the quarter-"nals come around and we're not in it, " said Keith Gleeson immediately afterwards. He wasn't wrong.