Keynan Knox has had to stay patient since his move to Munster straight from school in South Africa.
He was 19 when he made his Reds front row debut but, now 23, he has only made two starts in each of his four seasons with the province.
That statistic is about to change, as Knox made his second start of the new URC campaign in last week's victory against Zebre and he is in line to start against Connacht at the Sportsground tomorrow night.
READ MORE: Padraic Joyce set for three more years as Galway boss
"It's nearly five years now in December since I joined," the prop reflected. "At the time, it was a big move.
"I had just finished my final exams two weeks before I flew over here. I got stuck straight into the middle of the season with the academy set-up and the new environment.
"It was a bit of a daunting thing at first but I always knew I wanted to test myself and take my rugby seriously. So when the opportunity arose, I thought it was the best path for me to come over here and test myself with such a big club and get better."
Knox acknowledges that it wasn't a well worn path that he has taken in the game, as while South Africa exports many players, very few leave at such a young age.
" It was an untested thing," he nodded. "But I'm definitely happy I made the decision to come over here. I've really settled quite nicely, embraced the culture.
"I really enjoy the way of life, the training, the club and everything here. I'm very happy at the moment.
" There's always challenges with being away from family and friends. I keep in contact with them fairly regularly but during the pandemic, there was about a two-year period where I didn't get back to see anyone.
"Of course that's challenging but when I first came over here, I knew that if I was going to make this work, I was going to have to fully dive into it and embrace everything around me.
"I got to know some really cool people, I have some great friends and friends' families that I would be close to here who have really made it a lot easier. I was very much accepted here and that does make it easier."
Knox feels like part of the furniture now. He has moved out of Limerick city into the countryside with his dog, Ragnor.
And, on the pitch, things are looking up under new head coach Graham Rowntree, who he has learned so much from over the past three years.
“When you’re in the situation where you want to play as much rugby as possible and you’re trying to put your hand up, when the decisions don’t go your way there’s going to be a lot of frustration to that," said Knox.
“The biggest thing I learnt in terms of having to adapt to that is patience and being able to transfer that energy into something constructive and just basically trying to get better all the time.
“So when I wasn’t getting selected I had extra room to do some extra training sessions. I could force my energy into trying to get better.
"Ultimately, if I’m not getting selected there’s got to be some opinion or reason why I’m not getting selected so it’s up to me to change that.
“So when I do get my chances, take them with both hands and make sure that doesn’t happen again that I don’t get selected. That’s the way I approach it, but I would be lying if I said there weren't any frustrations.
"You come into the sport to play as much as possible. Getting the opportunity to play the first three games of the season now has been awesome.
“So as long as I can try and continue to do that then I’m going to carry on enjoying it.”
READ NEXT:
Irish coach Christy Holly accused of sexual misconduct in US women's league
Limerick GAA insist relationship with JP McManus remains strong despite rift rumours
Eric Donovan coy on IABA High-performance director role vacancy
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
