He prefers to move forward, but James Ryan doesn't mind looking back.
In particular, the Ireland lock has good reason to reflect fondly on what he did last summer.
The Leinster man was controversially overlooked by Warren Gatland for the 2021 British and Irish Lions trip to South Africa, and then, when captain Alun Wyn Jones suffered a shoulder injury, saw Wales’ Adam Beard called up in his place.
Ryan confirmed yesterday that he wasn’t injured. "I was just not selected," he said.
The 29-year-old did make Andy Farrell’s squad for the trip to Australia but struggled to get his body "quite right for the first few weeks".
He did make four appearances on tour but missed the opening Test victory and found himself on the bench for Test two in Melbourne.
Ahead of Saturday’s autumn international against South Africa, Ryan was happy to recall his part in a stunning series-clinching win as Hugo Keenan scored in the last minute for a 29-26 victory in front of a huge crowd at the MCG.
The Dubliner replaced Ollie Chessum in the 54th minute and put in three tackles, making eight metres from six carries, including a vital burst before the winning score.
"The second Test was a dream come true, to be able to come on and play a little part in that," said Ryan, in line for his 76th cap this weekend.
"The mad thing was I actually felt awful watching the game, being on the bench.
"There were over 90,000 there. The game's in the balance, there's that build-up of nervous energy.
"But it just shows you I came on and I went okay.
"Sometimes you don't necessarily feel great, but you go out and then you surprise yourself in how you're able to perform.
"That was a special day definitely, one I'll always look back on.
"I was proud, it felt very rewarding and hugely satisfying.
"I had my family over there, a bunch of my mates.
"So to be involved with the Lions for the last couple of games, it was a dream come true, really. I loved it, I loved every second of it.
"It was such a unique tour, very different to any tour I've been on, but it was an amazing experience."
Ryan started the final Test but was stretchered off after being knocked out when his head made contact with Will Skelton’s knee.
"I came around pretty quick once I was off the pitch," he said.
"I was able to enjoy that night. It was a bit of a weird one, obviously, because we lost but I was able to enjoy that night and the next day and so on.
"It was frustrating at the time, but when I look at the whole couple of months, there's not much I would have changed."
Forever a Test Lion, the next task is to help Ireland produce their best performance of the window against the world champions and opposite number Eben Etzebeth, the monster Springboks lock.
"He's tough to play against," said the Ryan, a Grand Slam winner in 2018 and 2023.
"I think he's sort of the complete player.
"He's very good in the air in terms of his lineout defence. But around the park as well, he's very effective on both sides of the ball.
"He’s a good carrier, very fit. And then defensively, he's brilliant, obviously.
"He likes a charge down. So we can sort of do it all, really.
"He's been one of the best in the world for a long time, so it's very exciting to come up against him."
One area Ireland are targetting for improvement is defence with Simon Easterby lamenting the three tries conceded in the 46-19 win over Australia last weekend.
"Allowing them in [to our 22] and then when they're in there, I think we were just a little bit too inconsistent in our collisions," he said.
"We allowed them to get a little bit of momentum.
"Speed of ball is obviously king, isn't it?
"And when you give it to a team 30, 40 metres out for two or three phases, then it can be hard and it can punish you a bit but it's not always try time.
"But when you get that close to the try line and you don't get your body in front of a ball-carrier and you don't go and meet the attacker consistently enough, then good teams with powerful players, they're going to punish you.
"We got punished on the weekend from just a little bit of lack of consistency in our defence, five, six, seven metres out from our try line."
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