Nobody can accuse Joey Carbery of taking the easy path.
The 28-year-old lands in France today to start a new chapter in his life and on his rugby journey, temporarily leaving behind his wife Robyn and six-week-old son Beau.
They will follow when Beau gets his passport and vaccines are all sorted.
But Carbery has been here before.
Back in 2018 he decided that playing second fiddle to Johnny Sexton at Leinster wasn't his gig.
Even if he was getting plenty of game time at full-back and at 10 when the Ireland out-half was injured, the decision to switch to Munster was made with the firm intention of moving out of the legend’s shadow.
The fact that none of the three current Ireland internationals, Ross Byrne, Harry Byrne and Ciarán Frawley, and the up-and-coming Sam Prendergast at Leinster feel like a new environment would boost their chances stands in stark contrast to Carbery’s call back then.
The move down south, after making 37 appearances for the Blues, threatened to work out on many occasions but the Kiwi-born back just never got that run of injury-free rugby to show what he was fully capable of.
Last year, after starting against France in the 2022 Six Nations, he lost his place in the Ireland squad and quickly slipped down the pecking order, missing out on the World Cup.
The writing was on the wall.
Carbery (below) had a couple of offers from England but when Union Bordeaux-Begles, who reached the Top14 final, came calling last year, it was the only route that made sense, even if he knew he was going to have to juggle a new-born, a new country and a new language.
"Bordeaux had put down the offer quite early and I think it made my decision quite easy just based on their team and having Noel [McNamara] there as well," Carbery told reporters.
"It was everything I was looking for in a rugby team. It felt like you could be yourself in that rugby team, where people go out and express themselves. When the opportunity came around, it was too good an opportunity to pass by on."
There is a real sense of a clean slate, a much-needed fresh start after what, over the course of six seasons and 66 appearances, was ultimately an underwhelming stint.
And he admits that the nature of his final appearance for Munster: coming on as a replacement against Ulster, breaking his thumb but playing on, and then being ruled out of the URC play-offs kind of summed up his time at the club.
"It was a strange one because I didn’t think it was going to be my last game when it came around," he said.
"Look, on that day, I actually broke my thumb when I first came on in that first-half, I played through it and I thought I went quite well and then I suppose it was my last game in Thomond, it was quite nice that there was a good win at the end of it.
"But yeah, I’ve had a bad run of injuries down there and I suppose for it to end like that, it kind of summed it up. But look, I’m hoping that this little injury is the last one for a while, so I can push on forward.
"I think [it is a clean slate] and I’m lucky it was such a minor injury. I know it was annoying at the time but I can start pre-season now, fresh and fit and I don’t have to bring anything with me, which is great.
"Like when I have got a run of games that’s when I’m at my best and I know I won’t get injuries as much because you’re more likely to pick up injuries when you’re playing here or there and your body’s not used to the hits and the impacts.
"I’m just hoping to put a fresh start down and get a run of it."
Pre-season training starts next Monday and Carbery has his accommodation sorted.
The presence of former Leinster and Ireland U20s coach McNamara, the attack coach, was a "big factor" in choosing Bordeaux, he says.
While the narrative around his move to Munster centred around getting more time at 10, he's very open to slotting in at full-back, where he has always looked more than comfortable.
"If that's where I was picked, I'd be more than happy to stay there," says Carbery, who won 37 Ireland caps.
"I do really love 15. I think the freedom you get from it, especially playing with the right team.
"I played 15 back when I was playing with Johnny Sexton, back in Leinster, and like it was just an incredible backline to play in. The players we had around, it made my job so much easier.
"But I've also been on the other side where you play 15 with probably not the best backline and you don't get much of the ball, you might touch it twice in a game.
"So I suppose that's the difficult side of playing 15: you don't get as much involvement unless things happen.
"I think the way the [Bordeaux] backline lines up, to me it's very exciting because if you're at 15, you get a lot of ball, a lot of touches. So if the opportunity came around, I'd grab it with two hands."
Ever since making his Ireland debut, as a replacement in the historic first ever win over New Zealand in 2016, Carbery has been seen as a star in the making, but the 'in the making’ part just lasted too long.
Speaking around the time the move away from Munster was known, he admitted that he rated himself "higher than I thought I was being treated".
However, he’ll leave the IRFU system, for two years minimum, with no bad blood and revealed there was a couple of conversions with head coach Andy Farrell.
He said: "I won’t go into any details but... I suppose, he understood my frustration and he understood that this is a good new challenge for me and a fresh start because you do sometimes get in a bit of a rut.
"And when we were having those conversations I hadn’t been picked for Ireland for over a year so I think he completely understood where I was coming from.
"For him, he could see it from a personal side, that’s it’s been a really tough year for me because playing for Ireland has always been a number one target so for that to not happen was affecting my confidence on the pitch so I couldn’t be myself out there.
"I think this fresh start will regather everything and hopefully kick me forward."
While he has been busy with the new arrival – he wonders if the reporters on the Teams call can see his tired eyes – the former Athy RFC player has had a few opportunities to watch some Olympic action and says he’d love to give Sevens a go.
"I thought the Irish boys were very hard done by with that knock-on [against Fiji]," he said.
"Well, it looked like a knock on. But it seems to be different rules as regards the TMO, I’m not too sure. But I felt for them because they were doing well.
"I actually just like sticking on RTÉ and they just flip between loads of different sports.
"We were watching the badminton the other night and I think it was Nhat [Nguyen] playing and it was incredible, he won against the Israeli fella.
"Badminton is class, I like to watch the track and field but that’s not for a while.
"The swimming is always good. To be honest, it’s just really good, watching the canoeing the other day, I didn’t really know the rules at the start but you got to grips with it just watching it."
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