Simon Zebo hasn't given up on his Ireland ambitions and reckons the team’s current style of play would suit him down to the ground.
The 33-year-old Munster winger scored nine tries in 35 appearances for Ireland between 2012 and 2017 before his switch to Racing 92 put his international career on hold.
Then coach Joe Schmidt and Zebo never shared the same rugby philosophy but looking on from the outside as the likes of Mack Hansen, James Lowe and Hugo Keenan express themselves under Andy Farrell has been a source of encouragement.
While the New Zealander, who delivered three Six Nations titles in his tenure, operated a more structured game plan, Farrell has given players licence to play it as they see it.
"It’s very different now to what it was under Joe," a smiling Zebo tells RTÉ Sport.
"There are a lot of players expressing themselves more so and they probably have a little bit more freedom.
"That’s not to say that Joe’s [game plan] didn’t work, it’s just a different style.
"This style would probably have suited me more in international rugby."
Upon his return from Paris, Zebo earned a call-up to the squad ahead of the 2021 autumn internationals but didn’t see any game time.
He says he had good conversations with Farrell around that time and the plan was in place to get him back involved for the Six Nations in 2022 but it just never worked out.
Zebo was one of the Munster players stuck in South Africa in their ill-fated trip in November 2021 after testing positive for Covid-19.
"The Covid thing was the most frustrating thing," he said.
"Breaking my ribs [against Toulouse in the Champions Cup quarter-final in 2022] was another thing but the stuff that was out of my control was a bit frustrating.
"The chats [with Farrell] were just around the general shape, trying to get me up to speed. I’d been playing a completely different way in Paris until I came back home.
"It was very much about understanding the way they were trying to play and the philosophy so that I could kick on, kick on play well with Munster and then be involved in Six Nations or whatever but it just didn’t work out with Covid and the South Africa nightmare."
For now, Zebo wants to put a frustrating 2022-23 season behind him and get a run of games under his belt.
He’s two weeks into pre-season training and will also work as an analyst with RTÉ Sport during the Rugby World Cup.
He managed just six games last season, one of which was against South Africa A, and scored two tries.
When the final stages of Munster’s season came to a dramatic conclusion he was way down the pecking order.
"I would be able to play a game and then I’d be out for a couple of weeks with another injury and then I’d get a bit of form, training might go well, might play another game and then another knock," he said.
"It was just hit and miss. I didn’t have an 'official injury’. I just had constant niggles and be available to play and then pull out at the last minute.
"It went on for so long and by the time the big games came around you have to back who’s playing and playing well.
"My body kind of let me down last year. It wasn’t a form thing. Any game I played I played well. I didn’t play one bad game, it was a health issue more than anything."
He’ll answer if Farrell calls at any stage but he wants to work through the gears on the home front first. That means being fit and ready to go for the big European games and battling with the likes of Shane Daly and Calvin Nash, young guns by comparison, for starting places.
"You still have to show that you are hungry to play or you won’t play," he said of the competition.
"You can hold on to your experience, [that you've] been there done it and the highest level.
"Confidence in your own ability - I know there are things I can do on a rugby pitch that nobody else can do in the world. I just have to get my confidence and be healthy and get back-to-back games, as opposed to play one and be out for three."
While it might have been understandable if Zebo, who scored 25 tries in 60 appearances while with Racing, had mixed feelings sitting at home with his kids watching Munster win the URC, he says it brought him nothing but pride.
"Obviously I would have loved to play but there was no frustration," he added.
"I was very proud of the lads, it had been a long time since we’d played and won in a final, 12-odd years so it was fantastic. I was a very proud Munster man watching those games."
Watch live coverage of Ireland's Rugby World Cup warm-up games v Italy (5 August), England (19 August) and Samoa (26 August) live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 or follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app.
