It has been a reversal of fortunes this time, with Aki suspended for the opening three games of Ireland’s Six Nations campaign – opening the door for McCloskey to stake his claim once again.

While Ireland got off to a slow start with an emphatic defeat by France before surviving a scare against Italy, it all came together against England.

McCloskey was a key figure in that game, making line breaks, creating opportunities, putting in the hard yards which culminated in that last-ditch tackle on Smith, who seemed to be in the clear to salvage a four-try bonus point as a form of consolation for Steve Borthwick’s team.

Racing back to make that challenge turned McCloskey into something of a viral sensation afterwards, giving him “a few laughs as there are some funny memes going about”.

However, it was an incident during training on the Tuesday before the game when Farrell challenged him for not making the same effort which reminded him of the effort required at Test level.

“It wasn’t like Andy went through us, but just pointed it out and a couple of us were still struggling with soreness from the weekend, but he was right.

“You’ve got to chase back every one and then subconsciously you’ll know to do that, but any big game you chase and this time I just had the angle.”