Picture the scene.
At some point last summer, likely basking in the Italian sun while on duty for Wales U20s in the Six Nations Summer Series, Joe Hawkins, Christ Tshiunza, Dafydd Jenkins and Mason Grady sat down to have a chat.
Four young men tentatively mapping out where their futures might take them. At that point, only one - Tshiunza - had been capped at senior level.
Yet all of them knew what they wanted. The 2023 World Cup in France.
Now, as Grady joined the others within that quartet as a capped senior international after his debut against England last weekend, that dream is a little closer to becoming a reality.
"There was a moment when Joe, Christ, Dafydd and I sat around and said wouldn’t it be amazing to play in the next World Cup," Grady said. "To then play in the Six Nations before the World Cup with those boys is pretty mad. Getting a cap with them is amazing.
"I didn’t expect it to happen so soon. To be honest, I just wanted to get myself in the Cardiff team. I don’t know if I’ll play against either Italy or France. I’m just focusing on training at the moment, trying to better myself. Hopefully I’ll get another chance, but it is what it is."
Few Test weeks will be as dramatic as Grady's first, with the threat of strike action amid contract disputes with Welsh rugby bosses a very real possibility until just 72 hours before kick-off. The sight of Wales players looking more than a little exhausted after countless meetings was a familiar one for anyone who spent enough time at the Vale Resort.
For the Cardiff centre, though, he left the negotiating for those with more experience, backing them to make "the right decisions". As such, he could just "put everything behind me and concentrate on preparing to play England".
The end result was an experience he describes as "pretty surreal", making his debut in front of 74,000 people including his proud family and alongside the players he'd shared that moment with a year ago.
In particular, the centre partnership with Hawkins looks like a promising one moving forward, having shone for Wales U20s last year. Any time a promising centre partnership threatens to break out, comparisons to Wales' longest-running combination of Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies - regardless of how premature they may be - are bound to pop up.
"To be even compared to those two is incredible. We will try our best to do anything close to what they did for Wales. I put all my trust in Joe and let him do his thing and he let me do mine. I really enjoy playing with him."
Of course, all of that quartet had long been tipped to pull on the Welsh jersey, but that doesn't make the experience of playing alongside the likes of Dan Biggar, Leigh Halfpenny and George North any less surreal for the 20-year-old.
"I watched them all as a kid and I can remember playing the 2011 World Cup video game and playing with all those. It’s pretty mad to now be learning off them."
For what it's worth, Grady's tactics in the video game largely mirrored that of every Wales coach for the first decade or so after the new millennium. "I just passed it to Shane Williams and let him run around everyone."
Grady isn't the first from his family to win international honours. His mum and brother Ashton both played basketball for Wales, while his older brother Cory Allen blazed the trail for Grady, winning six caps in midfield for Wales.
"We didn’t talk too much about the experience, we just talked about going out and enjoying it," said Grady of his brother's advice. "He told me to try to impose my game on them and just back myself. I had his full support on the day."
To cap last week's debut off, Grady's mother posted a couple of pictures of herself, Warren Gatland and Grady a decade apart. The first was after Allen's Wales debut against Tonga in November 2013, the second picture after Grady's.
Naturally, Grady had done a little bit of growing since then. Now standing at 6ft 5in and weighing 17st 4lb, he towers over his mother and coach now.
"It feels like only yesterday that that picture of me and my Mum at the stadium watching my brother making his debut was taken," he admits. "It’s pretty made seeing those pictures now. That was 10 years ago.
"All the family were immensely proud being there to watch me win my first cap. I had about 15 family members there and to let them see me win my cap was amazing."
Next on the agenda is winning more caps. Then, maybe, you might just hear of Grady, Hawkins, Jenkins and Tshiunza sat around a table somewhere in France, perhaps planning what comes next.
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