On the Wales flight out to Switzerland at the start of this week, there was one face who wasn't quite as familiar as the rest.
Among the near-50 players travelling out with Wales, all but one have spent at least a month in a Welsh camp.
That exception is Taine Plumtree, the back-rower who only arrived back in the land of his birth last week.
Before that, he'd been in New Zealand, plying his trade for the Auckland Blues in Super Rugby.
Still, the Scarlets new signing had little time to unpack before being flown back out at Switzerland on Monday.
Just why, though, has the Wales coach opted to take a look at the Swansea-born Plumtree? After all, the suggestion has prompted some derision from fans who believe the likes of James Botham, Morgan Morris or Thomas Young would have been more deserving of a call-up.
That's a fair point of view, with the parachuting of a player into the World Cup plans at this late stage always bound to cause consternation, but the fact is that Gatland has taken the first opportunity to get Plumtree in. Clearly, there's something about the 23-year-old that Gatland wants to have a look at.
His versatility is a strength, given he can play lock and all over the back-row - with Gatland namechecking the injury of Josh Macleod when confirming Plumtree's call-up. Plumtree's new team-mate at the Scarlets is someone who can cover the whole back-row, so that mention might be notable.
Those who have seen him play in New Zealand would suggest he's best-suited to blindside. That's perhaps a position that needs nailing down, based on Gatland's previous comments.
Openside maybe isn't an issue, even after Justin Tipuric's retirement, but Wales don't really seem to know which way to go with the six jersey, especially now Josh Navidi has hung up his boots.
"Probably the hardest thing at the moment with our loose forwards is we’ve got a lot of quality but a lot of like for like," said Gatland at the time of the initial squad announcement in May. "We’ve got a lot of players who are around the 100kg mark who have a lot of really positive attributes about their game.
"That makes it tough in terms of making a final decision. We went with someone like Taine Basham because we like how explosive he is.
"We think someone like Aaron Wainwright can potentially the No 8 position. Morgan Morris has had a really good year.
"Someone like Carwyn Tuipulotu we talked about as someone for the future. There was a lot of discussion. We’ve spoken a lot about the six position in terms of can (Dan) Lydiate give us the physicality we need?
"We’ve tried Christ Tshiunza there too. Thomas Young has had some outstanding games. We know how good he is with ball in hand.
"But it’s probably an area with our loose forwards where we’re looking for physicality at the breakdown, turnovers, competing, and counter-rucking – those sorts of things. We’ve got really good ball players and we’ve got to get the balance right."
Those quotes arguably give an answer to why Gatland wants to look at Plumtree in closer detail.
He perhaps has shown that balance in the limited senior rugby he's experienced. Anyone familiar with some of his try-scoring exploits for either the Blues or Wellington will know he's comfortable in wider channels.
The two tries he scored for the Blues against the Highlanders - in what appeared to be a breakthrough game for Plumtree - came from out wide, with the first demonstrating some nice judgement to give the pass early then stay alive for the offload.
There was also a hat-trick for Wellington against Northland, which demonstrated his athleticism. The second try in particular shows an awareness of space - recognising where best to run his support line before showing enough gas to reach the whitewash.
There's a burst of pace there that makes him a threat on edges, but that same game shows there's some physicality to boot - with one dominant tackle helping to set up a try in the game against Northland
With Plumtree's father, John, moving around plenty through his coaching career, it's only natural that Plumtree has been exposed to different environments.
The fact Plumtree Sr was coaching at Swansea is why his son is in contention for a place in Wales' World Cup squad right now. But it's jobs in South Africa and Ireland that has seen the junior Plumtree experience playing in Durban and Dublin.
He's previously spoken about enjoying the combative nature of the former, while his time at Blackrock College would have been decent enough exposure to northern hemisphere rugby.
Another reason Gatland will like him is his work at the lineout - not only being a safe target, but someone capable of stealing opposition ball.
An interesting thread on Twitter by analyst Carrick Blake used the statistics from Oval Insights to determine which players Plumtree was closest to as a reference point for those unfamiliar.
Based on the data, Akira Ioane and Caelan Doris are the most similar, but in terms of Welsh players, it would be Tipuric. That's obviously down to his work in space with ball in hand, but also his work in defence and over the ball at the breakdown.
Comparing anyone to Tipuric is a fool's errand, given how freakish some of his abilities are. You probably won't find another player with as rounded a wheelhouse as the man in the blue cap.
But the comparison alone is testament that clearly Plumtree has a rounded game, with a decent mix of physicality, athleticism and size.
Of course, it's drawing from a considerably smaller sample size, with Plumtree having only played six Super Rugby games and then about 19 NPC games in New Zealand.
And while that's also important in the sense that there's not more data available to gain a better understanding of Plumtree's game, it's also worthwhile in the more simplistic notion of acknowledging he's a player who simply hasn't played that many senior games.
Despite boasting an all-round talent, Plumtree hasn't quite had a breakthrough in New Zealand. As mentioned before, those two tries against the Highlanders were expected to be that - but after that game in March 2022, he managed only three more Super Rugby appearances for a grand total of 92 minutes.
He is, in fairness, competing against Akira Ioane, Dalton Papalii, Hoskins Sotutu, and Patrick Tuipulotu. The fact that he's barely been sighted in Super Rugby recently is likely the reason, as well as Test ambitions over here, behind the move to Wales now.
He's undoubtedly raw, but clearly Gatland believes there are enough materials present to shape into a Test player. That much was obvious when the Wales coach mentioned his height and his varied rugby upbringing.
It'll be interesting to see how Wales' newest call-up gets on in the coming weeks.
