The Ireland coaches sent Wycherley away with different parts of his game to work on and after enjoying a strong season with Munster, the 23-year-old is set to make his Ireland debut against Japan on Saturday, or USA next week.

“It was hugely, hugely beneficial,” Wycherley says of the few days he spent in camp last October.

“I have only realised now when I’m up here. Even just knowing your way around the hotel. I know it’s only small things but knowing one or two different fellas, there is a good network of lads that are here from the last time I was here.

“It definitely makes it easier. There are also a lot of fellas I would have played with through the 20s that are here, so that makes it a lot easier for me to settle in as well.”

Small things like that can indeed make a big difference, especially for someone like Wycherley, who admits that putting himself out there in front of a new group is not something that comes easy to him.

However, he has quickly made his presence felt within the Munster set-up, and he is expected to do the same with Ireland, as he looks to make a big impression on Farrell and his backroom team.

Growing up just outside Bantry, Wycherley would take great pleasure in watching the nuances of Donncha O’Callaghan and Paul O’Connell’s time, both in the red and green jersey.

Although Wycherley has floated between back-row and lock in the early part of his career, it has been made clear to him that his future lies in the second row.

What better mentor to learn from then, than Ireland’s forwards coach O’Connell?

“I worked with him a small bit when I was in the Munster Academy,” Wycherley recalls.

“He was in with Munster for a bit and I was in second year of the Academy. I would have done a bit of lineout work and things with him, but not a whole pile.

“It will be very interesting, especially around the lineout for me, just trying to learn a lot from him around lineout calling and things like that.

“He loves information and passing it on. I’m just going to draw as much as I can over the short period that we have. I will try to pick his brain and take all the benefits with it.

“When I was growing up they (O’Connell and O’Callaghan) would be the two you would be striving for and I’d have watched all the Ireland and the Munster games there when they were four and five and I would definitely strived to have been even a sniff of what they were when they were playing.

“They would have been my boyhood idols when I was growing up for sure.”

Many young Munster locks have come and gone since the legendary pair hung up their boots and although a lot of them have been unable to fill the unenviable void, Wycherley is determined not to be weighed down by that level of expectation.

“The thing you have to do is try your best when you are out there,” he insists.

“People don’t particularly ask you too much about them, but I suppose if you were to look back through Munster’s history, they would be among the two best second rows to have come out of Munster over a long period of time. You strive to be like those kinds of second rows.”

Rugby in West Cork has really been put on the map by the likes of Gavin Coombes and Wycherley blazing a trail, but the latter is quick to point out that other sport stars have emerged from his locale, as he name-checks Darragh McElhinney (in 2019, he became the first Irish athlete in 28 years to win a long-distance medal at the U-20 European Championships), Libby Coppinger (Cork dual star) and Niamh Cotter (Cork footballer).

No doubt they will be all watching closely over the next fortnight, as Wycherley looks to add to his reputation by pulling on the green jersey for the first time.

“You’re in with the best of the best. You’re very lucky to train with these guys for the next couple of weeks,” he adds.

“Obviously I would be honoured to get a cap if the opportunity comes.”