By John Haughey BBC Sport NI

Stephen Ferris takes in the Banbridge Rugby Club dressing-room walls and chuckles as he recalls his first visit to the premises.

"I was playing for Portadown under-18s. The showers were cold and everyone in the team had their wallets nicked," he laughs.

Eight years on, he is receiving more hospitable treatment as the TV cameramen and newspaper snappers are fussing over him at the pre-Six Nations Guinness Rugby press night.

It is something of a throw-back to the pre-professional era.

Ferris and his Ulster and Ireland team-mates Tom Court, Paddy Wallace and Andrew Trimble all available for as long as the media men and women need them.

Refreshing in these times when trying to set up an interview with an Ireland rugby international can be about as easy at attempting to break into Fort Knox.

The evening has started off in relaxed and good-humoured fashion before Ferris causes something of a stir among the assembled hacks by revealing that he will join Trimble and several other front-line Irish players in being ruled out of the Six Nations opener in Rome because of injury.

"Unfortunately I twisted the knee in my last game against Aironi," nods Ferris ruefully.

If there's a brick wall to run into, you just have to put the head down and get on with it Stephen Ferris

"It's an old injury really because in 2007 I tore the meniscus in my left knee and a similar kind of action happened against Aironi.

"I don't have any meniscus left in there so it's a bit of bone bruising which will take a week or two to settle down.

"But with a bit of physio and a lot of rehab over the next couple of weeks, I'll be back raring to go - hopefully for the France game."

All the injuries in the Ireland camp has reignited the debate over the toll that the professional era is taking on the game's stars.

Ferris doesn't see any simple solutions - particularly from his own perspective given his rampaging style of play.

"Everybody has said over the past few weeks that they have enjoyed watching me play (for Ulster) and running hard and tackling hard.

"If there's a brick wall to run into, you just have to put the head down and get on with it.

"People like to watch that but there are consequences and your body can only take so much. It's rugby."

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Not that injuries don't get you down.

He shakes his head and sighs as he recalls his premature exit from the 2009 Lions tour after he had hit the ground running in spectacular fashion in South Africa in the wake of Ireland's Grand Slam triumph.

"The Lions tour injury was just unlucky.

"A couple of guys landed on my leg and it was an MCL tear. Ten guys land on my leg, week in week out when I'm playing rugby but I don't get that kind of injury."

A broken cheekbone also kept Ferris out of last summer's tour to Australia and New Zealand and there have been other enforced absences.

But Ferris has always bounced back from the injuries - seemingly better than before - and says he's grateful that none of the knocks has led to a long lay-off.

In any case, Ferris' big picture is the rugby dream that he is living.

Ten years ago, he had no notion about his impending rugby stardom.

There was no schools rugby glitter for Ferris as he left Friends in Lisburn at the age of 16 and headed to the nearby tech.

"I studied at Lisburn Tech...no didn't really study. Went out and partied. Finished that and started working."

In the real world, Ferris' jobs included laying driveways for £200 a week and he was still very much in party-mode when out of the blue came a call from Ulster Rugby Academy manager Allen Clarke.

Stephen Ferris started the 2009 Lions tour superbly before suffering injury

"He asked me if I wanted to go training with the Ulster youths up in Jordanstown.

"I was like...'yeah, I'm not having a few beers with the lads tonight so I'll go up'.

"I went up and played well. He asked me to play for them the next Saturday and I did and got man of the match.

"I scored a couple of tries in the next game after that and it just snowballed.

"Once I got to under-19 level with Ireland, I really started to knuckle down and take it seriously and think that I had a future in the sport."

Ferris' first Ulster appearance came against Border Reivers in 2005 at Netherdale.

"I got 10 minutes off the bench and had to do fitness immediately afterwards and thought I was going to die.

"The fitness coach was wondering 'who is this young kid here who can hardly run' but Mark McCall, who was Ulster coach at the time, told him to have a bit of faith in me.

"Three or four weeks later, I was starting against Biarritz at home in the Heineken Cup."

When I needed 20 quid to get the train up to Jordanstown for a weights session my parents were the people to help me out Stephen Ferris

His first Ireland cap came a year later in November 2006 and he played against the Pacific Islands in the final international at the old Lansdowne Road.

Ferris reels off the names of all his coaches from Barney McGonigle at Friends School right through to Brian McLaughlin and Declan Kidney as he talks of people who have provided invaluable guidance.

But the greatest thanks goes to his parents "who supported me from day one".

"When I needed 20 quid to get the train up to Jordanstown for a weights session they were the people to help me out.

"My mum drove me everywhere. I competed in athletics as well as she drove me to Athlone and places like that all over Ireland."

One of those journeys even yielded an Irish schools javelin title for Ferris as he picked up the gold a couple of weeks after throwing the spear for the first time.

But Ferris' javelin was soon gathering dust in the family garage and it's a decision which has proved a blessing for Irish rugby.

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