Ross Byrne's attitude has been key since returning to the Ireland frame, according to Stuart Lancaster.
The 27-year-old out-half now has 16 Ireland caps but had been out of favour until last autumn but has since usurped Joey Carbery, Jack Carty, Billy Burns, Jack Crowley, and even younger brother Harry, to become Johnny Sexton’s deputy.
His appearances off the bench for Ireland against Australia, Wales and France, where he kicked five points and saw Ireland through most of the second half, have shown him in a new light having had to endure sporadic and largely frustrating involvements since making his international debut in 2018.
"He’s got a good level of self-belief, which is built on a firm foundation, he does the work," Leinster senior coach Lancaster told RTÉ Sport.
"He’s very committed to Leinster so when he didn’t get his opportunity with Ireland he just rolls his sleeves up and threw himself back into Leinster.
"It has served him well. It has meant more and more game time which means more and more decisions and increasing confidence and belief.
"He’s grown as a leader, he’s had to be patient and he’s going about it the right way. He’s letting his performances on the field drive and influence the coaches.
"Clearly he did enough in camp to get on the bench, they trust him to come off the bench and I think in both games he’s done extremely well."
New Ireland call-up Jamie Osborne has also seen at close range the work-rate of Byrne.
The Naas man made his Leinster debut at the start of 2021 and knows exactly how Byrne has worked his way back into favour with Andy Farrell.
"He’s a really good leader on the pitch, he gives everyone outside him such confidence," said the centre, who is hoping to line out for the BTK URC leaders against Dragons on Saturday evening (7.35pm, live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).
"He’s very loud and it just makes things a lot easier for me and the other young players because we know exactly what he wants from us. His communication is very clear.
"He’s been playing pretty well the last few seasons and he’s taken his opportunity with both hands."
Leinster, bidding to regain their domestic title after losing in the semi-finals last season, host the Welsh outfit minus many of the Irish players, who are retained in camp during the fallow week.
However, they are able to welcome back Ireland squad members Osborne, Jordan Larmour, Jimmy O'Brien, Joe McCarthy, Michael Milne to the fray.
Lancaster insists that the absence of so many experienced frontliners is no excuse for standards to slip against the Dragons, who sit second from bottom of the standings with just three wins all season.
"I don’t have to continually remind them [of what’s expected] because they feel it every time they go on the training field," said Lancaster, who will depart for Racing 92 at the end of the season.
"If anyone lets their standards drop on the training field then it shows straight away.
"We show examples of what the very best look like, showing the Irish example.
"The last game we played was Cardiff, which was a great win but equally the last time we played Dragons it was 7-6 down there and we didn’t play great at all.
"The standards are very much internal, obviously supported and driven by the coaches.
"Even if we have 21 players missing, we’ve still got some very good players training.
"We had 33 lads training today but only 23 are going to get picked so that’s the beauty of Leinster, our strength in depth."
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