It was suggested last week that the Kiwi prop forward Michael Bent is, in fact, a premature arrival for the Gathering, a massive marketing drive by Ireland's tourism board to bring home the diaspora in 2013. So while he is answering Ireland's call against South Africa on Saturday afternoon, it is just a different number that was dialled.

The Gathering itself has been attracting its own share of controversy on the basis that it may just be a shake down of tourists rather than a genuine attempt to reunite long-lost cousins. And then along comes the Taranaki tighthead, who looks as if he is playing the system all on his own.

It did not help that, figuratively speaking, Bent went straight from the tarmac at Dublin airport to an Ireland training session. And suddenly, in a crass piece of photographic choreography, there was a hurling stick planted in his hand. Or rather, schtick.

From there the storm blew up a bit. The former Ireland captain Keith Wood was especially put out.

"It can't be that easy to play for Ireland as to get on a flight and fly into the country," he said this week. "It can't be. And I find that wrong. There is something unpalatable about a guy who hasn't played a game in this country to go and play [for Ireland]."

Here's how easy it is: first, Bent's grandmother is from Dublin, and second, there is a yawning gap where Ireland's props are supposed to be queuing up. The Irish Rugby Football Union has been dodging bullets on this issue, especially with tightheads, ever since John Hayes decided that he was going to win 105 caps with precious few breaks in an 11-year sequence.

Of the four provinces feeding the national side, three of them have non-Ireland qualified players – BJ Botha, John Afoa and Nathan White – at tighthead. So throw in an injury – Declan Fitzpatrick, who is next in line, is concussed – and you have a crisis on your hands. As it happens, Fitzpatrick is back-up to Afoa at Ulster and has had only two games this season.

Irish fans are wondering if Bent is any good. It is a valid question because not only have they not seen him play, but he was picked up initially by Leinster, not Ireland. It was Leinster's scrum coach, Greg Feek, who did the legwork. Bent appealed because he was Ireland-qualified, which gets around the IRFU's limits on that issue, and because Feek rated him. So, as it happens, does Bent's coach at Taranaki, Colin Cooper.

"Michael started as a loosehead where he was very destructive, but because of a shortage of tightheads, and because he had the right attitude, we moved him over last year," he says. "He was up against Wyatt Crockett, who is touring now with the All Blacks, in our ITM Cup semi-final with Canterbury [two weeks ago] and that was a measure of how much he's improved. He had his moments and so did Wyatt but it was a really good contest.

"We're surprised I guess that he's gone straight into the Ireland squad but I've been coaching professional rugby for 16 years now and he's the hardest-working player I've come across. He's got a great attitude. He's still got a lot to work on at tighthead – he needs to keep his right shoulder down and not let the loosehead get under him – but he's a really diligent worker. And he's a neat guy."

Unfortunately for Bent, the Hurricanes coach, Mark Hammett, did not see it the same way. While Bent was a cornerstone of the Taranaki pack this season, playing every one of their ITM games, he featured only six times in the Super 15 for the Hurricanes, who signed him up last season.

"That wasn't down to a scrummaging issue," Cooper maintains. "He scrummaged well at Super level but had issues with mobility in defence and staying in the [defensive] system. We've worked hard with him on that since then."

If Taranaki had exited the ITM earlier, and Bent arrived in time to get a few Pro12 games for Leinster under his belt, his place in the Ireland squad would be less of an issue. Instead his rapid inclusion leaves the IRFU exposed on its failure to grow its own.

But then it would know all about poor timing. Last March the Ireland scrum was shunted all over Twickenham, causing much introspection on how to replace Mike Ross, who went off injured that afternoon. Two days later the IRFU advertised for a national scrum coach. The position remains unfilled. Perhaps the Gathering will throw up a suitable candidate, someone who may come over for his holidays and decide to stay a while longer. By then Michael Bent will know exactly where he stands with the Irish rugby public.