While Ireland's dire injury crisis appears to have abated since November, Simon Easterby will be faced with a different type of selection headache later this month when he selects his side to take on England in the Six Nations opener.
That challenge will come in the form of Ireland's backline selection, where the fight for a starting jersey is as competitive as we've seen in at least a decade.
With the well-documented race to be Ireland's first choice ten raging on, one of Robbie Henshaw, Gary Ringrose, or Bundee Aki inevitably going to miss out in the midfield and Calvin Nash currently in near career high form, the only two players who seem guaranteed their spot in Ireland's backline are Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan.
While the most high-profile of the battles will be between Prendergast and Crowley and the three in form centres - James Lowes' injury woes, combined with Mack Hansen's lack of game time due to both injury and suspension leave Munster wing Calvin Nash in the perfect position to uproot the status quo on Ireland's wing.
The Munster wing has been enjoying some of the form of his career over recent weeks, and delivered an emphatic Champions Cup performance against Northampton last weekend, topping off a massive shift with two tries.
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Bernard Jackman backs Calvin Nash for Six Nations start
Speaking on the RTÉ Rugby Podcast, Bernard Jackman was in little doubt that the Munster wing had done enough to topple either James Lowe or Mack Hansen who have been Ireland's go-to wings in recent years.
I think it's going to be a really hard one to leave him out, given the other two haven't played in January, well James Lowe might play, but how little they have played and he's just bang on form.
He's been really consistent for Munster, but that (performance against Northampton) was just catch your breath and exciting.
That work off his wing and that sweep that Munster are doing, I mean it's very Ireland and Andy Farrell like and that's really important as well, because I think Connacht do have a similar type of philosophy, James Lowe's obviously very settled in that, and even though Nash has played for Ireland and played under it, just doing it on a weekly basis with your club gets you the timing that shows the coaches it will be an easy integration.
He's right to be disappointed if he doesn't start against England.
While Jackman thought Nash deserved the start, he felt it would probably come on Hansen's wing.
James Lowe you take a punt on him just because of his kicking game.
Whereas with Mack his form has been a little bit up and down anyway and then obviously won't have played for the weeks leading into it, so I think Nash has a great chance to start.
Although it's unlike this Ireland side to stray from their tried and tested stars, the presence of Simon Easterby as head coach coupled with a willingness to distribute game time during the Autumn Internationals could pave the way for Nash to add his to eight Ireland caps next month.
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