There was a time when Nicky Smith being named in a Wales squad was a formality, particularly under former head coach Warren Gatland.
But it has been more than a year since the loose-head prop has been seen anywhere near the Test arena, with his last appearance there coming against Argentina in the summer of 2021. Ahead of the most recent campaign, he did not really form part of the debate, with few demanding answers when he was deemed at least fourth choice. He quietly became a forgotten man.
A strange slide down the pecking order, then, for 28-year-old forward, who was part of the 2019 Rugby World Cup squad that made it to the semi-final in Japan.
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The suggestion is that he does not fit the profile of what Wayne Pivac is demanding from his front five forwards. It was viewed as an area that required drastic improvement after the previous global gathering and the Wales management have inflexible views on what players must be able to do.
Rhys Carre is viewed as a potential all-court prop who may well nail down that position should his scrummaging improve, whereas Wyn Jones is dependable in the tight but less than sensational in open play.
Over the summer, Gareth Thomas was viewed as the happy medium between the two but he missed the Stormers' visit to a sodden Swansea.com Stadium on Friday night, where Smith made a real statement. He has always been useful in the loose, particularly at the breakdown. But doubts have always lingered over whether he is destructive enough, particularly in the scrum.
Well, with Pivac watching on in Swansea on Friday night, Smith made his case.
The Ospreys won a handful of scrum penalties and had at least two reset when another referee may well have opted to award them a penalty. The Stormers' starting front row was not littered with household names, but no South African front row is a joke and it was a real feather in the caps of the Ospreys pack that they were able to do a job up front. Smith was at the heart of the battle.
"It was a day for forwards," said Ospreys boss Toby Booth. "Nicky Smith has probably been one of our most consistent performers all year so far.
"We have a saying back home, 'no scrum, no chance', and those front row boys have delivered that. Nicky has been central to that and I'm sure Wales are having a look at him."
He was then asked whether his side should have had more reward at the scrum. "No comment," he replied with a wry smile which gave away more than his actual answer.
He was pressed on the matter and added: "Look, we'll have a look at it. We're a little bemused about some of that but we've got to take that out of the equation wherever we can. We'll have discussions and go through the right processes but we had a number of opportunities to score.
"I felt like we were certainly the dominant set piece, for sure, and that's good because it's what we pride ourselves on. The greatest compliment they could give us is that they flew over international props and front rowers."
Smith will be pleased with his evening's work, no doubt, as will the Wales boss, with his side having not always been blessed with a wealth of talent.
Smith's form means Wyn Jones now has a point to prove against Zebre on Saturday, as does Rhys Carre when his Cardiff side welcome the Dragons.
Pivac will be watching them closely to see how they respond but Ospreys prop Smith did all he could to make sure his name features in Wales' autumn squad announcement this coming Tuesday.
Another who was right in the thick of the action was Jac Morgan, and it just so happens that he, too, has been left out by Wales of late.
The openside was a surprise omission from the squad that travelled to South Africa this summer, even if the selection of Tommy Reffell turned out to be shrewd. Pivac's reason behind the call was that he had concerns over Morgan's physicality in Test match rugby.
There are few who would doubt his exploits at domestic level, where he is one of the URC's top poachers, but there were doubts over how he transferred that form to the international stage during his Six Nations opportunities.
Morgan, though, could hardly have done more to make a statement in front of Pivac. He was at the forefront of the Ospreys' defensive effort, typically making more tackles than any of his team-mates.
The volume of his tackles was one thing but he was dominating collisions, most notably one with Springbok World Cup winner Steven Kitshoff that will have made the highlights reel. He was a complete nuisance at the breakdown, too.
Competition for places will only raise standards ahead of Wales' autumn Test schedule, and that can only be a good thing.
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