It's been a pretty full-on few weeks for Tom Farrell.
The Munster centre won his first Ireland cap in the 41-10 defeat of Japan at Aviva Stadium. Aged 32, he became the oldest man to make his Ireland debut since Nathan White in 2015.
Farrell played well too, rising to a special occasion as he finally fulfilled a career-long ambition.
Now it's back to business with the province.
Munster were reeled in by Stormers at Thomond Park last Saturday as their unbeaten start to the URC campaign came to an end. They had a post mortem on Monday, desperate to right a few issues ahead of Saturday night's Investec Champions Cup opener at Bath.
After a dizzying month, Farrell's feet are back on the ground.
"It's weird and disappointing but a little bit of frustration too," he said of the Stormers result.
"We talked about it (Monday) morning, not much has really changed for us over these next couple of weeks. I think it's a 10-game block.
"Our mindset and our attitude towards the block hasn't really changed. Going into this week, it's no different. Obviously, a small blip over the weekend, a bit of frustration, but our mindset and our attitude were completely on course, to be honest.
"We just said it's a great opportunity for us to bounce back, I suppose, and to go over to the Premiership champions and also the Challenge Cup champions and to put out our game there and to give our travelling supporters something to cheer about, hopefully."
That won't be easy. Johann van Graan's side have power and class. They will be a formidable test for Munster at the Rec.
"To be honest, they're quite a complete team," Farrell said. "They can nearly put out two full 15s, which are high, high quality. Obviously, an unbelievable set-piece and the kicking game to go with it. And then, probably one of the best back lines in the Premiership.
"So, yeah, we're under no illusions going into this, what a test it's going to be."
"Although we are frustrated and disappointed, hopefully that loss will stand to us."
Munster were excellent in the first half last Saturday (they led 21-6 at the break), but the Stormers fought their way back into the contest as they began to do damage at scrum time, getting a foothold before totally shifting the game's momentum.
Farrell admitted there were some lessons doled out that must be taken on board.
"Just in terms of when we had a lot of opportunities, particularly in the first half," he added.
"We took a few of them, obviously. But then we probably thought we'd get more and more in that second half and they didn't present themselves in that second half.
"So, really, when we do have opportunities that are presented to us right in front of our face, we definitely need to take more of them because you don't know when the next one's going to come. Particularly now going into European rugby for these next couple of weeks, the chances are going to be even fewer and probably even more difficult to come by.
"Although we are frustrated and disappointed, hopefully that loss will stand to us. We can take some learnings on how to close out games and how to... close out games when we're under pressure situations, how to deal with them and how to manoeuvre our way through and things like that."
