As all Ireland awaited the Sean O’Brien verdict yesterday – he has been banned for a week for striking Pascale Pape in Sunday's meeting with France so misses their quarter-final meeting with Argentina - fellow flanker Rhys Ruddock was settling into camp and looking forward to an opportunity that he thought had passed him by when an arm injury ruled him out of contention for Ireland’s initial World Cup squad, having transformed himself from supporter to player overnight.
"I was sitting at home like everyone else just watching the game and obviously feeling proud of the lads for the effort they put in, then just before bed I got a phone call to say I might be coming over so packed my bags pretty sharpish, got on a plane and now I'm here and into training and looking forward the rest of the tournament," he explained.
"Everyone wants to play on the biggest stage and to have an opportunity to play at a World Cup was something I was hoping for but, with my injuries, didn't work out. Now I'm just delighted to be here."
The scale of the challenge could be daunting but Ruddock simply seems excited and ready for the challenge should he get the call.
"That's what you live for,” he said.
“I've had opportunities like this before where I've been called out for the U20 World Cup at 19 and told to put on the jersey and play and I really enjoyed that."
"It shouldn't be something that fazes players. It's what you play for, to play at the top level so I'm looking forward to whatever challenges are ahead."
"Luckily I've been around the squad a long time. It's just been a bit of refreshing the memory and making sure I get that work done. I'm pretty much up to scratch really, so it's good."
By contrast as Eli Walker joined the Wales squad, he knew he was dependent on his team-mates beating South Africa if he is to see any World Cup action.
Originally called into their squad when Leigh Halfpenny was ruled out, he then suffered an injury of his own, but because he dropped out more than 48 hours before the tournament and has now recovered he could be recalled.
Since he has been working his way back to full fitness as a result of that hamstring problem, however, assistant coach Rob Howley said yesterday that the winger will not be considered for the quarter-final.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here