Ireland head coach Andy Farrell names his 33-man squad for the Rugby World Cup on Sunday and it's a panel likely to be short on surprises, with most pundits of the view that only two or three slots remain genuinely up for grabs.
One of the few difficult calls facing Farrell could well come at the hooker position, with former Ireland captain Rory Best anticipating Ulster's Tom Stewart giving the Ireland boss something to think about when he starts for the first time against Samoa in Bayonne on Saturday evening (7.45pm Irish time).
There are four players in the position currently involved in the Ireland camp, with Dan Sheehan and Rónan Kelleher almost certain to make the cut despite injury concerns, leaving Stewart with the task of unshipping provincial colleague Rob Herring from the third, and likely final hooker spot, in the squad.
"When the squad is named on Monday, you'll really see the severity of Dan Sheehan's injury," Best told RTÉ Sport.
"If it's something that's going to keep him out of the first and maybe the second game and Rónan Kelleher is struggling a little bit - he's a great player, but he has been struggling a little bit with injury over the last number of years - it's a big risk to take.
"If Sheehan is unavailable for the first two games and you go with a hooker that hasn't played yet and has had a few niggles over the years and he goes down injured the day before a game or goes down injured early or Rob Herring starts and goes down early, there's a lot to take in.
"I think it will also depends on Tom Stewart, who has a massive opportunity tomorrow to show that he's capable of playing at this level.
"Sheehan is probably the one of the best hookers in the world, if not the best hooker in the world, and Herring is going to go.
"But I think a lot will depend on Sheehan's injury and and those knocks and niggles that Herring has, whether it's Herring or Stewart."
Best has his own memories of a World Cup warm-up game in Bayonne as one of the survivors of the bloodbath against the Top 14 club ahead of the 2007 World Cup.
Brian O'Driscoll, who sustained a fracture to his sinus and a deep laceration under his his right eye, was one of a number of Ireland players injured in an encounter that Neil Best, who was no shrinking violet, described as the dirtiest he had played in.
"In hindsight, it was a very, very strange one to take on," the former Ireland captain reflected.
"We had France in our group. Obviously the World Cup was in France and we're playing a French club team three weeks out from the World Cup.
"I think the thinking was to get to France to play a game and play in the south of France not far off where we were going to be based and get used to the heat down there and get another game under our belts,
"But I think the biggest mistake was Denis Hickie scoring after a couple of minutes. Then they realised that they had no chance of beating us at rugby, so they might as well just try to beat us up!"
Watch Ireland v Samoa in the Summer Nations Series on Saturday from 7.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra
