Pat MacArthur might have spent this week wondering whether his big chance had come and gone last weekend but there are more pressing matters on is mind.
In any case, full-time players are exposed to enough sports psychology these days to know that the last thing you would want to admit to was wallowing in any sort of disappointment when there was, as those involved in professional sport never tire of reminding us, a positive to be taken from it.
He might have looked pretty disconsolate at the time, then, but his account of standing on the Murrayfield touchline surplus to requirements as Ross Ford, whom he was understudying, and the rest of the Scotland side closed out their 34-10 win over Italy, only accentuates that which he reckons will stand him in good stead.
"Last weekend was a great experience, to start with," said the 25-year-old. "To be involved with the national team, to get my first chance on the bench and to experience the whole atmosphere of winning at Murrayfield was great. I wasn't really expecting to get on. Fordy was going really well and the team was going well.
"Obviously, I wanted to get on and I will keep pushing and keep training hard to get my chance, but that is just the way I will have to look at it. It was an experience that means I will not be coming in from the cold to international rugby. I understand what is going on, the pressures and the noise that are part of an international game.
"As Scott Johnson [Scotland's caretaker head coach] says, caps are not going to be given away easily. Yes, you want the cap but you want to influence the game when you get your chance. The way I look at it is that, hopefully, I will play this week and impress enough that I might get a chance at some other point.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article