While a fully-fit Dave Kilcoyne is likely to be the main man for Munster at loosehead prop this season, the next spot in the queue looks wide open.
It's a straight shootout between Josh Wycherley and Jeremy Loughman, with the former getting an early chance to plant his flag in the ground tomorrow afternoon against Cardiff (live on RTÉ 2 and RTÉ Player).
Wycherley starts in the season opener at the Arms Park, as Kilcoyne makes his return from long-term injury off the bench, Loughman the unlucky one to miss out.
Splitting Loughman from Wycherley is tough. Loughman's 21 games last season were two more than Wycherley, although it was the latter who got the big starts in both the URC and Champions Cup in the final third of the season.
And although 23-year-old Wycherley picked up his first bit of international recognition this week, named to the Emerging Ireland squad for their tour of South Africa, Loughman appears to be favoured by Andy Farrell, having been called up to the wider squad during the Six Nations, before impressing against the Maori All Blacks over the summer.
"A fresh season and you want to push on and obviously there is nothing guaranteed so you have to prove yourself again and push yourself into the team," Wycherley said, ahead of tomorrow's season opener.
"So it's exciting, it brings new competition, pushes everybody on from the start and it’s brilliant, I think, for the team.
"I suppose through injuries and that I was lucky to get a lot of gametime, particularly towards the back-end of that season.
"I think you come into a fresh season, with a few new coaches, just buzzing to kick on again this year. You can only do the process as you did last year and see where the season takes you."
A younger brother of Munster lock Fineen, Josh made his Munster debut against tomorrow's opposition Cardiff in October 2020, but his real introduction to the province's fans came in their dramatic 39-31 win against Clermont Auvergne that December.
The then-21-year-old was thrown in at the deep end for just his third Munster start, and he recovered from a wobbly opening to play a crucial role in the comeback victory.
"It was great. The day before I was told that I was going to start, in that way I was lucky in that I didn't have time to think about it.
"It was just 'this had to be done’ and yeah, it was a shaky start but I kind of came around in the end but it was probably a bit of a confidence booster at the time but I suppose you have to keep pushing on every time you get a chance to play as well," he added.
Now in his second season as a fully-fledged member of the senior squad, the former U20 Six Nations Grand Slam winner says he's targeting an improvement in his work at the set-piece, while juggling the changes around him at the province.
New head coach Graham Rowntree and defence coach Denis Leamy have both spoken of the increased tempo they have brought to training, and Wycherley says it's been a welcome change.
"I think the majority of areas, there's always improvement to be done. As you go through the season you try to pick them off as you go.
"Yeah, I suppose working with Graham the last couple of years now, really getting to know his style and seeing that come into it a bit more this season. But really enjoying the way we're trying to play and trying to train. We're training a different kind of style and yeah, really enjoying it and working under the lads at the moment. It's brilliant.
"I think we're probably just training a bit faster, training at a bit of a different tempo than we were. I'm not saying whether that was a bad thing or a good thing, but I'm just really enjoying it. I'm enjoying the pace of it and enjoying the way we're playing at the moment.
"We haven't really spoken about trophies or any of that. I think we're just going to take it week by week and just try get better every week. That's kind of our main goal. Just keep pushing on every week to be competitive at the very end of the season and go from there.
"For now it's just about sticking to the process every week and building on each week.
"There hasn't been much talk about the end of the season. It's about now, really, and pushing on now.," he added.
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow the 2022/23 BKT United Rugby Championship across RTÉ radio, TV, RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
Watch live coverage of Cardiff v Munster and Zebre Parma v Leinster (17 September) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
