In his first seven appearances for Ireland, the hooker made four starts — against New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, and Argentina; no small feat for the then Connacht man.

But now, a decade — and 60 caps — later, he must look back and hope he soaked up the experience. After four starts in seven, he made just five starts in the next 60 tests. From starting 57% of games, he dropped to starting just 8%.

Similar to Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Cronin was labelled a ‘super-sub’ and the tag has stuck — with just one of his last 23 caps a start.

But that’s not the case at Leinster, where the Limerick man is a regular starter — starting all six Champions Cup games this season, and eight of the nine in last season’s European success. He’s scored 11 tries already this season, a nose for the line that few front row players anywhere could compete with — highlighting his importance to the European champions’ setup.

Yet, he still struggles to oust Rory Best, the Ulster and Lions hooker — despite the Ireland captain’s maturing years.

Rome on Sunday might give the Leinster man a chance to show what he can do from minute one, instead of delivering yet another cameo, chasing Best while trying to keep Niall Scannell at bay.

“I’d always like to see Seán Cronin get a go,” said Leinster scrum coach John Fogarty.

“You are preparing the guys to play for Ireland, you want as many of the guys to play as possible. Seán is someone I have worked closely with, you can see how dynamic he is when he plays the game, what he can do when he’s on the ball, but also set-pieces, it’s something he works hard on.

“Rory [Best] clearly has a huge leadership part in Ireland’s squad but for us here, Seán is someone who is a starter and he has started very well for us in the last season, and he’s in good form this season and we’re very happy with where he is at.”

The 32-year-old will play some part in Rome, assuming he avoids injury, but things aren’t so clear-cut for the other Leinster forwards.

Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan, and Seán O’Brien have various levels of comfort in their selection, but Jack McGrath is occupying a more precarious position. The former Lions loosehead — he played in all three tests against New Zealand just two summers ago — was dropped entirely for the Six Nations win over Scotland, with Dave Kilcoyne coming off the bench to replace Cian Healy.

Healy could be rested this weekend in Italy, but McGrath’s place in the team is far less secure than at any other point in his Test career.

Before the Lions tour, McGrath was Ireland’s first choice No1, starting 15 of 16 tests, but since then he has started just five of the 12 tests he’s featured.

“I think he’s clear in his head what he has to do, that’s the first point,” said Fogarty.

“Sometimes, we bring players back, medically we get them back really, really well [but] fitness levels probably haven’t been achieved.

“Jack was medically really good to come back and play, but he was probably not at the top of his physical level, so physically not where he needed to be. I think that’s what his focus is now, to get himself really, really good. In terms of leadership in the squad for us and what he can do at the set piece we’re happy with the way he is moving along and he’s working very, very hard with strength and conditioning to get himself physically good.”

Dan Leavy will miss Sunday’s game as the flanker’s return from a calf injury continues. He has not played since Leinster’s win over Connacht on December 22. “I’m hearing he is making good progress, again he needs to get physically better in certain parts,” Fogarty said.

Rhys Ruddock is also out after injuring a hamstring in training. Dave Kearney is a doubt for Friday’s PRO14 game against the Southern Kings after he complained of concussive symptoms in Saturday’s win over Zebre.