If he stayed fit, this was always going to be a big year for Roman Salanoa.
And with the final third of the URC season still to come, as well as the Champions Cup knockouts, it's already proven to be just that.
With 13 appearances to his name this season for Munster, and another three for Emerging Ireland, he's logged more gametime in this campaign than he had in the previous three seasons combined.
It's more than six years since he first came to Ireland from his native Hawaii, initially for a trial with Leinster in late 2016, before linking up with the province's sub-academy the following September, just before his 20th birthday.
His debut eventually followed in December 2019, before Munster swooped in to sign him in the summer of 2020, a move which ruffled a few feathers at his former province.
He featured seven times off the bench in his debut season at Thomond Park, but a series of injuries saw his progression stall in the 2021/22 campaign where he featured just twice.
Having never started a senior game before this summer, the departure of John Ryan left Munster with some inexperienced stocks at tighthead, and it meant that both he and Keynan Knox were always likely to get significant gametime this season. And although Ryan would return in October, injuries to Knox and Stephen Archer made Salanoa a regular presence in the matchday 23.
"You pretty much summed up my time here at Munster," he says, when told that he's played more this season than in the previous three combined.
"I had a very slow start coming over here from Dublin but I've been able to find my feet this year and kind of use the change of coaching staff to really take advantage of that and start fresh, work on my body a bit more, and take advantage of the things I didn't in the last two years.
"Yeah, just being able to go out week to week. And the times I have gotten to represent Munster, it's just always a good opportunity to represent the club."
While he arrived in Ireland with limited rugby experience, the fact that he was an American Football-playing Hawaiian meant that there was interest in him from day one. As a running back and eventually a defensive lineman, he had obvious power and explosiveness, but learning the intricacies of arguably the game's most technical position, tighthead prop, was always going to take some time.
"Still doing it today. Every day is a new opportunity to perfect your craft," he says of learning the arts of scrummaging.
"I mean, on the weekend, I wasn't really picture-perfect so you take learnings from the match before, in this case Toulouse, and you've just got to focus ahead for this week. You can't really dwell too much on the negatives, otherwise this week will fly by and you'll miss your chance to prepare for the game this weekend.
"Yeah, I've definitely had a few [good teachers]. Like, since I was in Leinster, day in and day out you'd see Tadhg Furlong, Michael Bent, Vakh Abdaladze, even in club rugby I played with Old Belvedere when I came in and Declan Lavery, Adam Howard, I had a few club players giving me the tricks and the dark secrets."
On top of learning the tricks of the front row, he also had to deal with the culture shock, moving to Dublin from the tiny beachside town of Laei, on the Hawaiin island of Oahu.
"I grew up near enough to the beach, I grew up in the country and we probably had two stop lights in my town, for about 40 minutes you go one way or the other.
"It was very rural, very country. Tropical life, island life, good food, seafood. It definitely made it hard to transition from American Football to rugby," he laughs.
"The most obvious one [difference] is the weather, definitely. But even the small stuff like cars driving on the other side of the road, the roads being so narrow, cars being so small. Even the architecture and stuff like that.
"It was definitely an experience in itself, just being in a different country. Luckily enough, through rugby, you're kind of able to travel through most of Ireland and you get to experience life in Europe as well."
Thankfully, the culture shock wasn't as big when he moved down the M7 in the summer of 2020, although he admits he's still struggling to get to grips with some of the accents.
"Especially with the Cork lads," he laughs. "When they're all around each other, they're different gravy."
Bit by bit, he's picking up a few of the key words and phrases to get by in Limerick and Cork.
"Probably the most common one is just that they say 'kid' or 'boy'... after literally everything!"
The 25-year-old has been hitting little markers along the way this season; his first start for the province against South Africa, his first Champions Cup appearance the following month against Toulouse, before making a first European start two weeks ago against Northampton Saints.
As well as the, there was the first bit of international recognition. Irish-qualified since 2020, he was drafted onto Simon Easterby's Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa in September, playing all three games, while also being involved with the Ireland A squad in November.
And he says he's hopeful he can stay in the mix for Test rugby in the years to come.
"I'd love to play international rugby, to play at the highest level you can and definitely that's in my hopes and dreams."
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