Rhys Ruddock likes Leinster's 'straight back into it' T&Cs
It's been almost six months. Half a calendar has been ripped to shreds by Covid-19 but rugby will finally return to Irish soil this week as the four provinces come together in PRO14 action at an empty Aviva Stadium across two days.
That's the plan.
Nothing is certain in the current climate and sport's fragility in the midst of a country still wrestling with a pandemic was highlighted last week when a Munster academy player tested positive for the virus and training was suspended.
So the first whistle, provided it sounds, will be greeted by a collective sigh of relief on Saturday when, for a period of two hours or so, the players from Leinster and Munster can distance themselves from society's wider ills while, conversely, engaging in the sort of close contact we have come to frown upon.
Rhys Ruddock is as keen as anyone to get back on the horse.
Weeks upon weeks of Zoom sessions and free weights in the spare room were a poor imitation of life in normal times and the Leinster back row entered into the shutdown on the back of a period when he had been overlooked for Six Nations duties.
His omission from Andy Farrell's first squad was among the most notable earlier this year.
A member of the World Cup squad in Japan, he has been in and around the panel for a decade now but perspective was easy when the world shut down.
“To be honest, it wasn't really a factor. There was so much more to be concerned about. Also, so much more to be thankful and grateful for.
"There's much bigger things going on in the world. Obviously, at the time I was keen to prove myself through performances.
"Didn't get a chance to do it, but it really wasn't in my mind with everything else that was going on.
“As well as being a nice break for the body and a chance to reset, mentally (it was a break) as well.
"It's made everyone really grateful and appreciate the job we get to do, getting back together and getting ready for a game in a couple of weeks time... You're kind of, 'wow, how lucky are we to be able to do this job'.”
Lucky, certainly, but it may be a mixed blessing at times given the volume of business to be done with one season to be put to bed and another that will have to be brought to life just weeks later.
International duties or not, Ruddock is about to become a very busy man.
There is no adaptation period. No loosener. Nothing in the way of a pleasant pre-season friendly against a half-hearted visitor.
Though miles ahead in their PRO14 conference, and confirmed of a semi spot, Leinster will still have to apply the warpaint first up for a pair of interpros.
Beyond that and it's knockout territory until, all going well, the middle of October.
“This is a unique scenario, it’s almost like we’re preparing for a World Cup, massive games that you can’t afford to lose ... It’s a very unique challenge but an exciting one where the depth of the squad and the unity of the group will be tested.”
Munster first. A familiar foe against the unfamiliar backdrop of an empty and echoing Aviva Stadium and with the possibility that some new faces could feature if Damian de Allende and RG Snyman are deemed fit and acclimatised to the task.
"Amazing auditions to their squad, huge amounts of experience, winning at the high level. Also game-breakers in their own right.
“So we know that, as good a team as Munster are, that will bolster them even more and they will be better for having them there.
"It definitely adds another dimension. We won’t have seen them play for Munster yet so it’s also a little bit of the unknown, how they use them.”
It won't be the same. Sport without fans can feel cold and clinical.
It's a stage without an audience to feed it but it continues to deliver, whether Bayern Munich's brilliance, the unending mysteries of Ronnie O'Sullivan, or Ireland's cricketers scalping England's world champs.
Fingers crossed.
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