inevitable the talk will eventually turn to Wade Dooley's glorious afternoon at Twickenham in 1992 when he suited up for England and his 50th cap.

Dooley makes his first appearance for England in the World Rugby Classic in little more than a week, although the legendary lock was in Bermuda for the 1991 Easter Classic.

Much has changed in the three years since Dooley was here. At the time his illustrious career was winding down and England had just won their second straight Grand Slam triumph.

What still lay ahead, however, was his 50th cap, the day Dooley led his country's march onto the field, and later scored his third international try.

"That really was fairytale stuff,'' Dooley said in a telephone interview yesterday. "And to score a try on top of that was something that's only written about in books. Everything seemed to go right that day. It would be difficult to top that.'' The memories will almost certainly come flowing back when Dooley and his England team-mates face Bermuda in their opening game on November 9. The squad have been hard at work, with build-up games in Jersey and Hong Kong, where the old-timers reached the semi-finals of a tournament.

"I think most of the boys, and I'm not including myself in that, of course, have a bit of a paunch hanging over the waistline,'' he said. "It'll be more of a sedate pace.'' England -- Classic finalists three times (1988, 1991 and 1992) -- settled for the Plate Final title a year ago, hardly making up for a stinging loss against the Barbarians and a hard-fought draw against Australia.

"Basically I'm told it's taken very, very seriously,'' said Dooley, while Jovice, his police dog, barked in the background. "There's no prisoners taken and some of the teams that will remain unnamed actually train for this.

"What you do see with a lot of these players is that the old skill is still there. You see your Stevie Smiths, your Dusty Hares and people like that still producing that little bit of wizardry and a little bit of magic.

"I'm a relative new boy to this, but there's a lot of fun to be had as well.

There's that big bash on whatever the night is called. I'm looking forward to it.'' The party Dooley aptly refers to is the Up Front Party at Number One Shed.

That's when the talk will likely shift to England's 24-0 rout of Wales in 1992, the afternoon Dooley took a short, sharp pass from Rob Andrew and crashed over the try line.

"As I get older the distance gets greater and I'm up to about 25 yards now,'' he said, laughing. "But it was actually about 10 yards out from the touch line, so it was the furthest I'd run with a ball in my hands.'' The six-foot-eight, 252-pound behemoth will obviously be one of the most recognisable players in the Classic. He said an England victory would be the perfect way to usher in England's entry into next year's World Cup.

The 37-year-old played five more caps after that memorable day (the ball he scored the try with remains on prominent display at his home club, Preston Grasshoppers, in the `Dooley suite') -- while England clung to hopes of recreating the magic of winning another Grand Slam.

"We honestly believed that we could do it, but it just didn't happen,'' he said. "Then I got the realisation that it was time to have to call it a day.

I carried injuries all that season that I just couldn't shrug off.'' Dooley played for England from 1985 to 1993, making his debut against Romania.

His worst moment came against Scotland in 1987 during a Five Nations match when he was banned for one game for his part in a legendary brawl after he flattened Welsh number eight Phil Davies with a punch.

He is the most capped lock in English history, played in the 1987 and 1991 World Cups and for the British Lions twice. His two other international tries came against France in 1986 and in the World Cup against the US the following year.

His climb to top flight rugby truly was a remarkable one -- few players have ever made the leap from a fourth division team.

"From one week playing at Preston to actually going out at Twickenham was fairly daunting,'' he said. "I got such a kick out of it, such a buzz, that I decided then I wasn't going to let it go.'' The next game against France, a 9-9 draw, "things just took off. I got more of a taste and was determined not to lose my place.'' Dooley grew up in a rugby family. His father, Geoff, played rugby league for St. Helens while Paul, his brother, played for Waterloo, Hull and now Fleetwood.

A long-time member of the Police force, Dooley now lives on the Fydle coast, the outskirts of Preston, with his wife, Sharon, and three young daughters.

"I was brought up with it because I was born and bred in Warrington, in rugby league country,'' said Dooley. "It was just a natural thing to do. I guess you could say I was gently encouraged by my father.'' He officially retired from Preston last season, but remains involved as a coach. He also helps to manage the British Police team and is involved in the selection for the England side.

"I don't think you can ever completely abandon rugby,'' he said. "Not when you've been involved in it as long as I have. I've been playing since I was nine.

"One of the reasons that I actually finished, the getting old thing was the main reason, but it's that international rugby is so intense, it's so time consuming. You spend very little time at home and a lot of time away. So with my little girls, it wasn't really `where is Daddy?' it was `who is Daddy?' That was another reason for calling it a day.'' Later he added: "You know, the England team I played on, we grew up together.

We were good enough for four or five Grand Slams and we let ourselves down on occasions and we were unlucky in the World Cup final. It was such a pleasure for to me play on that side. Everybody knew what everybody else was doing, we played on intuition.

"The youngsters who are coming in now are going to have to pick up the mantle and do that little bit better. And the only way they'll do that is by winning the World Cup next year and three Grand Slams. Until they do I don't think there's a place alongside the team of 1990 and 1991.'' Dooley fired up for Classic debut PHOTO TOWER OF POWER -- Wade Dooley (far right), shown here in a World Cup match against the US in 1991, makes his first Classic appearance next week.