Wayne Pivac would probably have preferred all his Wales front-liners to have had their feet up over the weekend, with a Six Nations game with France to play on Friday evening.
If only life were that simple.
Nick Tompkins, Dan Biggar and Taulupe Faletau were all on duty for their English clubs, along with Louis Rees-Zammit and Callum Sheedy.
Pivac also released five home-based players back to their teams in Wales.
And Josh Navidi played his first game in five months as he featured for Cardiff in their clash with Ulster at the Kingspan Stadium.
How did all concerned fare?
MARK ORDERS watched the action.
Nick Tompkins
Let's start with the top performer on the day.
“He’s incredibly hard-working,” said Lawrence Dallaglio in commentary for BT Sport.
“It’s aligned with good coaching as well. He’s really improved and he's a really important cog for Saracens.”
Tompkins performed outstandingly for Sarries in their win over Leicester in English rugby’s game of the day, with the centre deservedly walking off with the man-of-the-match award.
He had a direct hand in three of Saracens’ four tries — and joined a maul for the other touchdown.
The Wales centre defended resolutely, passed nicely, ran strongly and claimed possession at a restart that led to a try.
Throughout the game, he played with huge energy and no little confidence.
Taulupe Faletau
Wales’ best player against England, he banged in another top effort seven days on.
That’s what the best players do.
Considering his effort for Bath against Bristol was only Faletau’s fourth game back after an injury-enforced absence, it was mightily impressive.
“Toby is world class,” said Bath coach Neil Hatley.
“He has around 90 caps but if he hadn’t had the injury he would be over 100 by now.
“He’s a Triple British Lion who is very understated in how he goes about things but if you watch his game he just gets everything right.
“We are so pleased we have him until the end of the season.”
Faletau was Bath’s top defender and made a dozen ball carries for 31 metres.
He also played the full 80 minutes.
Wales’ captain was another one who went the distance for his club six days before the clash with France.
Typically, Biggar didn’t spare himself.
Northampton Saints narrowly lost at Gloucester, but their No. 10 was in the thick of the action throughout, helping to set up a spectacular try, nailing goalkicks and organising his team.
The only way Biggar knows to play is at hundred percent and the 32-year-old didn’t do anything to contradict that long held view.
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Callum Sheedy
An outstanding first-half performance for Bristol against Bath at The Rec saw Sheedy running the show with aplomb as his team turned around 24-5 ahead.
But indiscipline cost Pat Lam’s side with a red card and three yellows coming their way.
Sheedy was among those to spend 10 minutes on the sidelines.
He didn’t miss a kick on the day but Bath took the spoils at 29-27.
Louis Rees-Zammit
Scored a peach of a try with his first touch of the ball for Gloucester against Northampton Saints at Kingsholm.
Rees-Zammit came on for the final quarter and didn’t waste time making a mark.
Receiving possession near half way, the Wales wing used his trademark pace to make ground, initially running straight before veering right and clear of opponents who had no answer.
It was a timely nudge in Pivac’s direction after the youngster was dropped for the Six Nations game with England.
That said, of course, the Wales wings on duty at Twickenham, Alex Cuthbert and Josh Adams, both performed strongly.
Pivac has options.
Josh Navidi
Came through 80 minutes in his comeback game after five months out.
Navidi made 16 tackles, the most by any Cardiff player on the night, and didn’t shirk anything.
However, with the visitors to Belfast hopelessly misfiring as a team, the Wales international found it hard to impact the game in other ways.
Is he ready to start an international?
Hard to say on this evidence, but Wales struggled at the breakdown against England and Navidi has now been drafted into the squad.
The selectors face an important call.
Gareth Davies
Unused as a Wales replacement against Scotland and left out of the matchday squad for the game with England, Davies has had a challenging few weeks.
But he responded impressively on Saturday evening, scoring one try and setting another up.
Sione Kalamafoni was the official man of the match in the Scarlets’ win over Glasgow Warriors, but Davies was the catalyst for some of their best attacking play.
There were 76 passes flicked out in 72 minutes from the scrum-half, 49 metres made from eight runs and six defenders beaten.
For his touchdown, Davies stepped past three would-be tacklers and his pace and skill helped spark the Scarlets’ best display of the season.
Pivac would have been happy with the efforts of both his scrum-halves against England, but Davies showed against Glasgow he isn’t ready to give up the fight.
James Ratti
He hasn’t featured in a single minute of the Six Nations and he only saw 22 minutes of action as a replacement for Cardiff against Ulster in Belfast on Friday evening.
But Ratti made more of an impact than any other Cardiff player on the night.
Not only did the 24-year-old score a try, he also made ground with close on every carry and didn’t miss with any of his tackle attempts.
There wasn’t much for Cardiff to cheer amid a dismal team performance, but Ratti returned home in credit.
Rhys Carre
Had half-an-hour on the pitch as a replacement for Cardiff against Ulster and didn’t do badly off the bench, making some ground with his carries and defending busily.
Carre has had a watching brief in this Six Nations, though, with Wyn Jones and Gareth Thomas seemingly ahead of him in the selectors’ eyes.
Still, he wasn’t the worst in Belfast.
Willis Halaholo
Not the audition he would have wanted ahead of selection for the game with France.
Halaholo was yellow carded and missed four tackles for Cardiff against Ulster.
Injuries have hampered so far in the Six Nations and to stand any hope of facing France on Friday he needed a big performance.
It didn’t happen.
There were few opportunities for Halaholo to showcase his renowned attacking skills, while Ulster centres James Hume and Stuart McCloskey were dominant all evening.
Ellis Jenkins
Another one who looked a shade rusty as he couldn’t impact events in Belfast in the way that he would have wanted.
Jenkins didn’t go missing in defensive action — he never does — but Ulster were more physical all over the pitch and the Cardiff No. 6 found it hard to demonstrate his skills in other areas.
He's now been released back to Cardiff for their trip to South Africa.
Aaron Wainwright
Taken out of the action for the second half amid the carnage at Thomond Park, where the Dragons lost 64-3 against Munster.
By the time Wainwright left the field, the Irish province had banked their try bonus point and were in total control at 28-3.
The Wales international didn’t miss a tackle but couldn’t get his carrying game going, with the traffic flowing pretty much all in the other direction.
