SCENES from Twickenham, 27 May 2000. The standard Munster heartbreak stuff, the kind of fare we'd become well accustomed to until last year changed it all. Gaillimh cradling the child, his eyes puffed red from a few tears. A couple of lads laid out like Jesus Christ on the turf, wanting to be anywhere but where they were. The whole lot of them in a huddle making promises to each other that they'd be back, that this wasn't the end of it all.

Now look past the familiar faces in that cluster, and there he is. Peter Bracken, dressed up to the nines in his suit and tie, tears rolling down his cheek as though he's trying to water the Cabbage Patch all on his own. But how did he get there? Why was there a young fella from Tullamore in the middle of it all? "I was just asked to come training one day, that's how it started, " says Bracken, who was doing a bit of study in Limerick and playing for UL Bohemians in AIL Division Three at the time. "I didn't have a contract, I just went up training as often as I could and as you can imagine, I tried to make as many as I could."

He didn't get any competitive games for Munster that season, but back then it wasn't about that. The experience was far more important. The Saracens game at Thomond Park, the one where a Ronan O'Gara conversion won it for Munster in the dying minutes, stands out for him, as do the scenes in Bordeaux after the semi-final win over Toulouse.

And of course, the defeat in the final to a stubborn Northampton side. "It was great to be there, it was such an emotional occasion, some experience. The night before the game we had this team meeting where everyone got something off their chests. It was an emotionally charged meeting, I can remember sitting there alongside the likes of Mick Galwey, Keith Wood, Peter Clohessy, Eddie Halvey and it kind of hit home to me, Jesus, I'm there or thereabouts now."

We're sitting in a busy room at Wasps' training ground in Acton, London, seven years on from that scene. Peter Bracken is talking about patience. He holds his hands up first, before he gets to the nub of his point, and admits that he's not the most patient of people and offers his wife up as a witness to that very fact.

But from a situation back in 2000 with Munster where he felt he was there or thereabouts, patience has been something he's been forced to learn, something he's had to adopt for his own sanity, if nothing else.

"It has been a long road, " he sighs, a little reluctant to admit out loud, in case he jinxes it all, that things could finally be happening for him. "You do need patience in the front row.

When you're younger you don't realise how long it's going to take as a prop. I was playing with guys at 21 who were backs and they took their chance but you're left waiting. Take Wasps this season, guys like Dom Wauldock and Danny Cipriani have come straight into the team. When you're a prop, the body has to mature, you have to be able to take the hits. It's probably not a bad thing, the wait. If you get into things too early your body mightn't be able for it and by the time you get to 30 your body might be broken down.

You also really appreciate it then when you do come through. I really appreciate everything that is happening to me now. I'm hitting a time now, from 29 to 33 or 34, where I'm going to hit my prime."

The now he speaks of is today's Heineken Cup semifinal against Northampton, and more specifically, his place in the Wasps starting line-up.

But it all started a long way from here. Back in the day, his Dad passed a bit of time in college in Galway playing rugby and when he took up a teaching post in Tullamore, he wandered down to the local rugby club for a bit of diversion. "I spent half my youth travelling around Leinster watching my Dad play, " says Bracken with a laugh. "The Towns Cup and all that. I remember when my Dad was captain when Tullamore won the Towns Thirds Cup or something along those lines. It was huge for us at the time."

If that was huge, then Munster's journey to their first Heineken Cup final must have shook his world pretty seriously. And when things didn't work out for him the way he felt they should have, it must have been even more difficult for him still. Having had a taste of the high life for a couple of seasons, he came to the realisation that if he was going to move forward in this business, he might have to take a step, if not backwards, then sideways.

He joined Connacht in the summer of 2001 and while he readily admits leaving Munster was extremely difficult, there's little or nothing about his time in Galway he would change. In particular, he feels that the experience he gained in the European Challenge Cup and its predecessor, the Parker Pen Shield, has effectively moulded him into the prop he is today.

"It was a huge learning curve playing in Europe, " he says, "I couldn't have got a better way of learning my trade. Going down to Narbonne, Pau, Montpellier . . . the dirtiest, most horrific games you've ever played in. Once we had the beating of them in those games they forgot about rugby and just tried to drag you down. You're trying to play rugby while they're gouging and going for you. It was commonplace down there.

Going into those places, the bands are playing, the fireworks are going off in the stands during the game but when the French know they're getting beaten they don't care anymore, they just want to fight. You usually come up against older props as well, the ones in the Challenge Cup, they love their scrums and take it very seriously. But we scrummaged well down there, played well there and I think it's stood to everyone. If you're able to take the hits in Pau and those places, you know you're going to be alright."

It was Warren Gatland, then on his way out of Wasps, who recommended Bracken to his successor, Ian McGeechan.

"When Wasps come looking for you, it's a privilege, " he says, indicating that it didn't take him too long to make up his mind to leave Connacht after four seasons. He's done pretty well for himself in London since, even if he is moving on to Bristol at the end of this season. Last year he starting 15 games, including the Powergen Cup final, despite a string of minor, niggly injures, a figure he's managed already this term.

That number's only going to grow in the coming weeks, with Tim Payne's knee injury meaning that Bracken's going to be Wasps' number one tight-head for the remainder of a season that may yet include both Heineken Cup and Guinness Premiership finals. "I'm ready to play, " he says eagerly. "I'm fresh even though it's the end of the season and I'm looking forward to it immensely. This is where I've trained for years to be and in the next couple of weeks things could work out."

He has another goal besides all this Wasps stuff, one that's eating away at him. Despite playing consistently well at such a high level over the past two seasons, his opportunities to represent his country have amounted to a place in the extended Irish squad on last year's tour to New Zealand and Australia. He carried more tackle bags and water bottles than he did balls down in the southern hemisphere, but hasn't given up.

"I think I should be there or thereabouts, " he says with a confidence you wouldn't expect of him. "It would be a dream come through for me if I got to play for Ireland and all I can do is prepare myself as well as I can and after that it's out of my hands. Obviously your ultimate ambition is to play for your country but who knows? At least in the Heineken Cup and Premiership games over the next few weeks, I can put myself in the fold for the tour to Argentina.

It would be fantastic to be on that. Whether I make it or not, at least I've given it my best shot."

Still there or thereabouts.

But closer to there now than seven years back.