Having marked his 100th Irish cap in style with a try in Saturday's 29-10 win against England at the Aviva Stadium, Keith Earls is hoping he's done enough to book his place in Andy Farrell's World Cup squad.
Earls became the ninth men's international to reach a century of appearances for Ireland, while his try was a nice reminder to the Irish coach that he's still a lethal finisher at Test level.
The 35-year-old still had plenty of work to do when he received a pass from Bundee Aki on the left wing, needing to leap high to catch the high ball, before accelerating quick off the line and completing the score with a spectacular somersault to the corner.
Never one to demand being the centre of attention, Earls admits to leaving his guard down after the score with a long celebration as he was set upon by his teammates.
And he says the enormity of the occasion had been playing on his mind all week.
"It's amazing how the moment makes you do things you don't like doing but I really enjoyed it," he says of his jubilant celebrations after the score.
"It was a good team try and a good pass from Bundee so I was happy to get in the corner.
"I was saying to the lads, it was probably the worst week of my life with all the attention around the 100th cap.
"It's hell sitting on the bench, nerve-wracking. In my head I was 'Jesus, will he ever put me on? This will be very embarrassing after everything we’ve gone through’."
It had been a long, emotional week for the Limerick man, which peaked on Thursday when his family were brought into camp for the team's jersey presentation, with his wife Edel gathering a collection of good luck messages from old teammates and coaches which included Declan Kidney and Joe Schmidt and Brian O'Driscoll.
"It was a nice little ten-minute video and she caught me off guard with that one.
"I was very emotional. It was emotional, the hardest thing I've ever done on Thursday trying to keep the tears out of my eyes around all the lads but I think I managed to do it. So it was grand.
"And again, seeing videos of Conor [Murray], Johnny [Sexton], Pete [O'Mahony] and Paulie [O'Connell] talking, we usually don't open up about each other like that, they were quite special.
"It was a rare thing to see the lads get emotional speaking about me, you take it for granted but they were incredible moments along with the family stuff and hearing about that."
Earls isn't content to ride off into the sunset though, with hopes of securing a place in Farrell's World Cup squad, which will be announced after Saturday's final warm-up game against Samoa in Bayonne.
"Listen, that's the reason why I came back for pre-season, that's the reason that I'm doing everything possible to stay fit.
"I have a burning desire to give myself the best chance to get to another World Cup. I tell you one thing, I'd hate to be the coaches trying to pick their 33-man squad, it's going to be tough."
The general consensus is that Earls is fighting it out with Jacob Stockdale for the final backline place in the group.
And Earls says if that is the case, he has tough competition.
"It's been a breath of fresh air to see Jacob back. He went through a couple of years of injuries with his foot and his ankle.
"We all know what he can do, what he did in 2018 and even up to before his injury he was a quality lad and you've seen glimpses of what he can do against Italy last week.
"Yeah, it's great to see him back and he's looking really big and fit as well, which isn't great for fellas who have to mark him. So yeah, delighted to see him back."
Watch live coverage of Ireland v Samoa on Saturday 26 August on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio or follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app.
