Paul O'Connell says Munster's Jean Kleyn was close to being called up for the Irish Rugby World Cup training squad, before the second row switched international allegiance to play for South Africa.
Kleyn won five caps for Ireland in 2019 after qualifying through the residency rules, but was able to switch to his native South Africa having gone more than three years without a Test match.
While the Munster lock hasn't featured for Ireland in the current World Cup cycle, he emerged as a potential bolter for Andy Farrell's side after being one of Munster's key players in their BKT United Rugby Championship title success last season.
The 29-year-old was left out of Ireland's summer training squad, and just a few days later he was called up by the Springboks, before making his debut in the opening round of the Rugby Championship in July.
Should Kleyn make South Africa's final World Cup squad, he could even come up against Ireland when the sides meet in Pool B on 23 September in Paris.
"He went away and he's entitled to go for what he went for and I wish him all the best," O'Connell (below) said.
Kleyn started all but two games for the province last season and was ever-present in the starting line-up from late November.
And while O'Connell admits it was a very close decision, he says management wanted to stay loyal to players who they had been working with in previous campaigns.
"He was very close," the Ireland forwards coach added.
"He's very experienced now, experienced different coaching staffs with Munster. He was part of a really successful Munster team this year and he does what he does really well. He’s an excellent mauler, excellent maul-defender. I think his ball-handling and his defence has improved massively now in the last few years.
"He looked very comfortable playing for Munster. The forwards were asked a little bit more of them this year and he was very comfortable.
"It was close, it was tight, I suppose some of the guys we had in the squad already, we felt we’d invested a good bit in them already, they were a little bit younger, they were quite big men as well in their own right."
Kleyn will win his second cap for the Springboks on Saturday when the world champions take on Argentina in a World Cup warm-up in Buenos Aires, having beaten Los Pumas 22-21 last week to finish second in the Rugby Championship.
Ireland will begin their warm-up campaign on Saturday against Italy at the Aviva Stadium (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player), but their southern hemisphere rivals already have three games under their belt.
And O'Connell says he's been fascinated by one area in particular while analysing the Rugby Championship.
"The ruck is a constant challenge," he said.
"Interpretation of the ruck first and foremost, and then I suppose the different scenarios that seem to be unfolding at the ruck; the counter-ruck is back in in a big way I suppose from France's success, they’ve been very hard at the ruck. And teams tend to look at other teams that are successful and copy them a little bit.
"That first game between New Zealand and South Africa, I thought the ruck was a fierce battle. I don’t think you can go into the game with a determination to be physical at the breakdown, you need to go into the game with a whole lot of work done, and a whole lot of habits embedded in how you go about your business at the breakdown to be able to deliver. That was a very interesting one for me, the breakdown.
"And it was the same at the end of the season in some of the big European games, Top 14 games. The ruck was a fiercely contested battle, it leads to turnovers which is a real potent attacking threat; it leads to penalties which is three points on the board; it’s territory, it’s possession, it’s all that good stuff.
"That’s a big challenge, the maul as well, the amount of trick plays that teams are doing around the maul and the maul itself.
"I’m speaking from a forwards’ point of view, get ready to defend mauls but also trying to defend around the trick plays going around them as well. That’s been a big part of our preparations."
With just three games to make the final 33-man squad for the World Cup, some of the wider squad players in the group are expected to get a run in the first of the warm-up games this weekend, as they look to lay down an early mark for selection.
And although O'Connell says he knows some players are going to be left disappointed when the management team choose their squad at the end of this month, he says players have to look at the bigger picture.
"It's not all-or-nothing. You hope that by being in here and training with us, that players are improving and they’re looking at their opportunity to get a chance to try to get picked for the World Cup. And if they don’t, [they can] get out to the World Cup eventually, or on the back of a big pre-season and a development of their understanding of what’s required to play for us, that they break in in the future.
"Selection, they all want to go to the World Cup for sure, but selection for the World Cup is not an all-or-nothing thing. We talk a lot about just getting better. If we can get better individually, as a pack of forwards, or as backs, if we can get better as a team, incrementally, we can go places and achieve things. We’ve managed to do a little bit of that in the last few years. That’s the way we want the individuals thinking.
"I’m sure plenty of guys are going to be disappointed. They’ve their sights set on getting their chances and taking it but I think they’re all going to be better on the back of this pre-season."
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.
