Jamie Heaslip has tasted Six Nations title, Grand Slam and Heineken Cup glory this season - but he admits being part of a British and Irish Lions tour is 'living the dream'.
And the best could be yet to come for Ireland number eight Heaslip.
He lines up against the Sharks tomorrow night, looking to underline what most pundits believe - that he will secure a Lions Test place in the opening appointment with South Africa on 20 June.
'This tour is bringing the best out of everyone,' said the 25-year-old Leinster star. 'It's living the dream right now - the atmosphere is great.'
Heaslip though, insists his thoughts are not on the three-Test series at this stage of proceedings.
'There are three more games before the first Test match,' he added. 'All I am worried about is Wednesday night and getting out there and doing a job. Your biggest game is the next game.'
Heaslip's back-row combination with Tom Croft and David Wallace tomorrow has Test team material stamped all over it, as does the centre pairing of Brian O'Driscoll and Jamie Roberts.
But Lions head coach Ian McGeechan has revealed he is unlikely to give his Test team a trial run before the first Springboks clash.
'The main thing had been to get everyone playing in those first three games. Now, in the the next three games it is to keep looking at some of the combinations,' said McGeechan.
'The only other way of doing it is you separate the teams and you say to half the squad "you are not going to be involved in a Test match," and I am not prepared to do that.
'We will try and get combinations together, but as a XV, it is unlikely they will play as a XV before the (first) Test match.
'It's got to be about us, and what we want to try and be come first Test day. There are some risks, I am aware of that, but I think what we get out of it as a squad far outweighs that.
'As far as I am concerned, we have to be fair to the players and have to construct everything we are doing that is using everybody.
'As coaches and players, we have to be very focused in our understanding of what we are trying to bring to that first Test match. Everyone has a role to play in that.
'If someone had said we would get to game four with three wins and everyone playing, I would probably have bitten their hand off.
'I want all the players to give me a selection headache. The fewer easy choices I have to make, the better.
'If you've got only six games to your first Test match, the chances are you might only play twice or three times. What is important is the time they are getting together on the training field.
'If you were saying to me now, "pick a Test team," I would be doing it on the back of one game that a player has played, in some cases. I don't think that is fair to the players.
'I know we can't change the number of games going into the first Test. I just think it is more important that each player gets a genuine go - at least twice - to put his own game on the field.'
