A year ago yesterday Garry Ringrose scored a brace of tries off the wing for Leinster.
A first-half replacement for Jordan Larmour against the Sharks in a URC clash at the RDS, the Ireland centre soon had two tries to his name.
In fact, his first four starts for Leinster came on the wing, back in the 2015-16 season.
And just last week in the Rugby World Cup Pool B win over Scotland, he was forced to the flank after Mack Hansen went off for a head injury assessment after 22 minutes.
Hansen's replacement Stuart McCloskey moved into the centre with the Leinster man finding himself on the edge.
The Australian has been named to start against New Zealand tomorrow evening but sat out training early this week as he works off a calf injury.
Andy Farrell is already without the services of Robbie Henshaw and Keith Earls (both hamstring) and utility back Jimmy O’Brien was named on the bench.
It won’t take an unimaginable series of events for Ringrose to find himself out wide at the Stade de France again but the 28-year-old (below) is confident that the work has been done that means any potential move will be as smooth as possible.
"It certainly wasn't easy, there was once or twice I was roaring to Mack on the sideline because I forgot one of the roles that the winger was supposed to be doing," said Ringrose when asked about his appearance on the wing against the Scots.
"We are challenged, as backs, to be across everything, detail-wise.
"When you have Stu [McCloskey] stepping in, myself going to the wing, Jamison [Gibson-Park] going to the wing, it's part of the challenge.
"[We run in other positions] frequently enough in training
"Very often some guys might be managing load-wise so we’d be encouraged to test out different positions and be across it.
"To fully understand how something works, you've got to be aware of what other people are doing around you as well as your own role, which then adds and helps.
"So even if you haven’t got reps in certain positions during the week because of the general expectation of understanding we have with each other, that helps too."
Ringrose was lauded for a superb piece of skill when he brought down a deep Scotland kick with his foot before returning it deep into the opposition 22. From there Ireland had a platform that led to Hugo Keenan’s first try.
"I used to play rugby on a Saturday for school and, I didn’t tell the coaches [but] I played a bit of soccer on a Sunday," said the Dubliner of his first touch.
"There was a team growing up St James’ Athletic in Dublin. In secondary school it was Granada [in Blackrock] with a couple of mates, it was nothing serious, just with my mates and a couple of their dads would coach us."
Ringrose has been one of Ireland’s top performers so far and says that while he can’t deny the magnitude of tomorrow’s game in which the Six Nations champions are looking to get past a quarter-final for the first time ever, the team see the match as an opportunity to make history.
Asked if it was the biggest Test match in Irish rugby history, he said: "I don’t want to say no because I’m well aware of what’s at stake. How we would be looking at it is an opportunity to do something that no other Irish team has done.
"Having said that we can’t control the result or the outcome but what we can control is how well we prepare.
"So off the back of the win last week, and we knew who we’d be facing, from Sunday it was pretty much all hands on deck preparing as best we can because against a side of New Zealand’s quality that’s what it takes.
"I’m not sure if that answers your question but that’s what’s certainly motivating us, it’s an opportunity."
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