“Massive, unbelievable,” he said. “She’s doing well, she’s feeding well, sleeping well. Jean-Marie is doing great. She’s perfect. It’s something in the last three years that was top of my goals and lists to achieve, to be able to give that to Jean-Marie and myself, to complete our family, it’s been an unreal few days.

“I got a few days off as well, spent some time with them, just to make sure they got home okay. For us to be together for those four or five days was the best time of my life.

“Jean-Marie gave birth in Limerick on the Friday evening so I spent that week in the hospital and just learned, because we worked so hard, especially Jean-Marie, to get to that stage and to hold her in her arms and to see her, she’s perfect. I can’t wait for her to grow up one day.”

In the meantime, Stander has thrown himself into his work as he closes in on a World Cup debut in Japan next month and is in the frame for his first game of the campaign this Saturday, when Ireland go to Twickenham to face England.

With the squad flying to Portugal last Wednesday for a seven-day training camp in Portugal to prepare in 30C heat at the Quinta do Lago Campus on the Algarve, that has meant time away from his family and Stander admitted: “It is tough, I don’t think it will ever be easy.

“If I Skype now and see pictures of her, she’s changed already. When I left, her eyes were still closed because she was born two weeks early but just to see her now, being busy, moving around, on Skype, it is tough. I knew it and Jean-Marie knows it. Everli didn’t know it but I knew it was going to happen, there’s a big, big goal at the end of this and if I can celebrate it with them, I mean…”

Stander, 29 knows there is plenty to do before then, however, and is enjoying every minute of his first Ireland pre-World Cup training camp. The South African-born forward missed the 2015 tournament as he had not yet been resident in Ireland for three years, having joined Munster in October 2012.

He qualified for Ireland during the tail end of that World Cup but seeing his provincial team-mates prepare for Ireland duty in England and Wales that summer sowed the seeds of his ambition to make the 2019 squad.

“The last one, I remember a few times the boys trained with the squad and then came back and trained with Munster for a few days and you could just feel their presence and how they were walking around because they were preparing for a World Cup.

You get a lot of things in sport but the World Cup is the one that everyone wants to go to and compete. These boys, I remember Paul (O’Connell), Keith (Earls) and the lads were coming back from Irish camp and you could just see the way they train, they were in top, top shape and there was a presence around them.

"They went away again and we just kept doing what we were doing. We all, not just me who wasn’t even qualified, wanted to be part of that squad.

“I think I qualified just before the quarter-final. I’d been in talks and stuff then. So, yeah, to go to a World Cup is any boy’s dream, since you can think, since you can add one and one, it’s anyone’s dream to go to a World Cup.

“To be part of this group and representing this group would be unreal. It would be an unbelievable dream. It’s something I’ve really worked hard towards in these last few years. There’s things that are out of your control but the things that are in my control, I’ve tried to work on them and make that push.”

Facing England at Twickenham is some fixture to take that push further towards the plane for Japan, and Stander recognises the size of the challenge awaiting Ireland.

“It’s the deep end. Look, the next few games going into the World Cup, it’s what you want and need preparation-wise. We trained well, we prepared well, England have a few games under their belt now so I think it’s going to be a great match-up because there are going to be mistakes on both sides, probably, yes, but you’re going straight into a Test match at Twickenham, it’s a special place for a lot of people and for them as well so it’s going to be a tough physical game.”