Patience is a virtue that Alex Cuthbert has likely mastered.
Nearly 1,500 days passed between his 47th and 48th cap for his country, to the point where the past tense had replaced the present or future tense when it came to the Lions winger's Wales career. Many likely assumed he would never pull on the Welsh jersey again, but evidently not the man himself.
Years spent at Exeter outside of the goldfish bowl of Welsh rugby proved beneficial and, on his return to the Welsh game, he wasted little time in forcing his way back into international reckoning. By the end of his first season at the Ospreys, he had added four more caps to his collection - even usurping Louis Rees-Zammit from Wayne Pivac's XV to notch up his half century with what might have been a career-best performance against England.
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However, his comeback to the Test scene wouldn't be without its hurdles. This summer was a frustrating one for Cuthbert.
Having missed the first Test against South Africa, he got back to start the historic second Test in Bloemfontein - only to depart injured with a shoulder knock early on.
"It was a bit of a strange one," he said ahead of the new campaign. "It was frustrating because I had a back spasm before leaving that kept me out of the first Test.
"I worked my arse off to get back fit for that second Test and then 20 minutes in, I ruptured my lat completely off. It was a bit of a weird one.
"I tried to play on but I had no weight bearing on it at all. I just seemed to land a bit funny. It was one of those things."
He's raring to go again now, but however frustrating the summer was, you sense that the 32-year-old has a solid grasp of the bigger picture at play. A year out from the World Cup, the winger is well-placed to be part of Pivac's plans in France.
"It's the year to perform, isn't it?" he added. "It's a long year but you've got to build yourself up to it and put your best foot forward.
"For the international boys, it's about just making sure you're in Wayne's thoughts as much as possible.
"It was quite well publicised that I gave myself a shot to try to get back to Wales. I only signed a year so it was a shot in the dark really to see how I felt.
"I felt I was playing well enough at Exeter. But coming back came to fruition and so I signed a couple more years with the Ospreys.
"I'm just enjoying my rugby really. The World Cup is obviously the long-term aim, but it's a long way away. There's a lot of rugby before then and some big tournaments in front of that."
He's right that there's a lot of rugby to be played before the main event in France next year. Optimism isn't exactly overflowing in Welsh rugby at the minute, but the Ospreys do have some solid foundations to work from after a strong end to last season.
A run-in where they finally found their attacking touch saw them leapfrog the Scarlets on their way to the Welsh Shield, securing Champions Cup rugby in the process. However, the feeling was that the lack of a play-off place was a missed opportunity.
It's a mistake they're intent on not repeating twice.
"We're happy being the top Welsh team, but we're not happy being ninth," added Cuthbert. "That's another thing we want to push for.
"With the team we have on paper, we're going to be hard on ourselves in terms of expecting to be up there.
"Last year, we bedded in quite a few youngsters. We had a lot of international boys away.
"It showed from the start of the season to the end. I think we only had a couple of boys in the autumn squad, but by the summer tour we had about 11 or 12 in there.
"We were building throughout the season really and hopefully we can continue to build from that. We've had some young lads come in and they look the part.
"It's about keeping our best 15 or 23 on the field as many times as possible. Hopefully we'll be able to do that.
"It was frustrating not to get enough bonus points. We won enough games to get into the play-offs and I think a few more bonus points would probably have seen us sneak in."
As such, bringing the Ospreys' attacking weapons to the fore is high up on the to-do list. While the coaching reshuffle has yet to be announced officially after the departure of Brock James as attack coach, Toby Booth is keen on each of his ticket shouldering a bit more responsibility.
That should go some way to making the Ospreys more potent, with the early signs in pre-season being promising. So too does the return of several big names, like Justin Tipuric and George North.
"With Tips, it's like he's never been away," admitted Cuthbert. "He's one of the best players I've been around and he's got absolutely everything.
"George was just building confidence through that summer tour and it seems like he's having a good pre-season. He has come in full of beans like always."
As well as the established figures like North, Tipuric and Anscombe, Cuthbert urges those watching on from the stands to keep an eye on new recruit Jack Walsh and Wales under-20s captain Joe Hawkins. The pair could certainly provide a different dimension as a 10-12 axis when called upon, with "the boys being impressed" by Walsh in particular.
Despite still being some way away from celebrating his 33rd birthday, Cuthbert could be seen as a senior player at this point of his career. It's a role he admits he enjoys.
"I guess I'm getting to that age now," he says. "We've got a young back-three and we have a bit of a sit-down where we talk through what we need to work on through the week.
"Wingers nowadays do a lot of unseen work. Kick chase, leading the line in defence, making yards on edges which makes easier for our front-five to play on front-foot ball.
"We're not necessarily running in tries like we used to do. We've got a big pack and a set-piece focus.
"Hopefully we can win a lot of those battles and get some chances with ball in hand. But it's about work-ons with the youngsters and they're very forthcoming with me and George. We've got to remember we are the senior figures now in that backfield.
"I wouldn't say there's added pressure. There's always pressure in trying to keep your place when there's young lads snapping at your heels.
"That's what you want as it's pushing me out of a comfort zone, making me feel like every game is my last game. For them, that's how I try to sway it, whether they're playing or not.
"I've had times when I've been dropped and it's not really about how you play, but how you react. Whether they're doing bits of analysis and giving us pointers, coaches look at that and that's what I try get across to the younger lads.
"It's nice though - I enjoy it, getting stuck into them. I remember I was a youngster, getting absolutely drilled by the senior boys.
"That's the way it is."
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