It has only been a year since Johnny Sexton dipped his toes into coaching.
Having initially joined up with Andy Farrell’s squad in an informal capacity to work with his young out-halves, Sexton’s role become more formal in the Six Nations, even if still part-time.
By April, the former Ireland captain was ditching the business world for coaching full-time, becoming a permanent fixture in Farrell’s backroom team, while also being recruited to the British and Irish Lions coaching group.
While his playing career is up there with the very best, it's been a sharp rise through the coaching ranks – a fast-tracking that didn't go down well in some quarters when he earned his promotion to the Lions.
There’s enough self-awareness in the 40-year-old to recognise that from a coaching standpoint he was born on third base.
"I know I'm very lucky to get into an environment like this, probably too early in a coaching career," he said, ahead of Saturday's Quilter Nations Series meeting with Japan on Saturday (live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player).
"But when you're in there now, you have to make sure that you're as good as the role suggests. A good bit of development, I suppose, is the right way to put it."
In recent months Sexton has been filling his coaching scrapbook.
While with the Lions he spent time picking the brains of the coaching staff at the Adelaide Crows, and recently got the chance to broaden his horizons with people from another Australian team, the NRL’s Canberra Raiders.
Closer to home he was brought in by Stephen Bradley at Shamrock Rovers to trade ideas, and also used the Irish connection at Brentford, working with Keith Andrews for a week.
"That was the week before they played Man United. I was tempted to leak some of what they were doing, but I didn't!" Sexton – a huge Manchester United fan – added.
"I've tried to do it as much as I can in different sports over the last six months.
"Sometimes when you go into coaching, you're very one-way thinking because all you've known is probably two or three coaches that have influenced you the most, and you try and get their messaging across.
"But there's other ways and other methods out there in other sports that are invaluable to someone like me that's very inexperienced in coaching.
"So I watched them [Shamrock Rovers] coach, watched them train, watched them prepare.
"Andy [Farrell] asked me to come back in part-time [in 2024] and help out. I think he knew and I think I knew when that happened it was going to be very tough to walk away.
"That is what happened and look, this is where I am now and I've got to make the most of it and prove myself, prove my worth that I can add to an environment as special as this."
His initial role with Ireland was just working alongside the kickers, but now that he’s full-time, the job description has expanded.
Outside of international windows, he’ll spend his time working with the various pathway programmes in the men’s and women’s game, and also the provinces.
In Ireland camp, he’ll continue to work with on the kicking game, but is also working with fellow assistants Andrew Goodman and Simon Easterby around Ireland’s setpiece attack and defence.
"Andy's way is that we all muck in together anyway," Sexton (above) added.
"I don't have much say in the scrum and the lineout, but with regards to the whole game we're all in it together and we all have an opinion and Andy encourages us to give it.
"So, despite having responsibilities in certain areas, we dig in together and that'll always be the same."
Given the current trends of the game, his responsibilities in the kicking game will become more and more important.
The clampdown in 2024 on players "escorting" team-mates as they try and catch high balls has led to more contestable kicks, which as a result has led to more attacking opportunities in transition.
And he admits Ireland’s inconsistent execution of their contestable kicks was a factor in Saturday’s 26-13 defeat to New Zealand.
"While we were down to 14 men for the red card, our kicking game was excellent.
"Despite not winning the ball cleanly in the air, they [New Zealand] didn't win it and we won a lot of scraps. And that's probably what kept us in the game for that part of the game.
"And that's the part of the game that gave them a lot of access in the second half. I would say a couple of the kicks were just a little bit too long. We didn't quite make it a contestable and they played off the back of it.
"It's a massive part of the game now with the rule changes in terms of not being allowed to escort back. You've got to clear a good pathway for people to have a real contest."
Sexton (above) says there have been "honest" discussions about the nature of their performance in Saturday’s defeat to New Zealand.
And he’s hoping this weekend’s visit of Japan can see them click back into gear, just as it did on his 100th cap against the Brave Blossoms in 2021.
The former Leinster and Racing 92 out-half said: "What we saw in training for the last two weeks wasn't what was reflected on Saturday.
"So if you looked at those first two weeks, you'd say we're not far away at all. If you looked at Saturday, you'd say we're miles away but we're hoping that we'll show something a bit different now on this weekend against Japan and in the last two games as well.
"So we're doing a lot of work behind the scenes and making sure that that part of the game is as good as it's ever been."
Watch Ireland v Japan in the Quilter Nations Series on Saturday from 12pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra
