This time last year, Wallabies lock Adam Coleman was only beginning to put his stamp on the team.
His Spring Tour lasted less than two matches, with a knee injury forcing him to head home early, with some unfinished business left behind.
Now, he’s the first-picked lock in the side and Force teammate Matt Philip finds himself in Coleman’s fledgling shoes of 2016.
Philip has given Coleman a lot of credit for his progress into the Test ranks, pointing to their training tete-a-tete as a way of toughening last week’s debutant up.
“When Matt came to the Western Force he hadn’t really been in a professional environment before,” Coleman said.
“He took everything in his stride and it’s a testament to his hard work for him to be on the spring tour.”
The pair have only played one season together but Coleman’s on-field aggression has clearly rubbed off on Philip and the 26-year-old is as pleased as anyone to see his club locking partner in Wallaby gold.
“Matt gives everything, he gives it 100 per cent whether it’s at training or on the field and that’s one of his great qualities as a player and as a person,” he said.
“He’s all-in and he’ll give everything he can to the jersey that he’s going to play for on the weekend.”
Coleman will spearhead Australia's lineout on Saturday, and said he took some lessons from his truncated tour last season.
“Everyone talks about the Northern Hemisphere teams and set-piece and how it’s in their DNA,” he said.
“Unfortunately I went home early but the first two games, they really tried to take it to us in our set piece.
Coleman said he expected the same this time around.
“The Welsh are a class outfit, they’ve got threats from 1-15 and they can attack you anywhere,” he said.
“They’re a very physical side, very physical forward pack.
“We know they’re going to try and take us up front in the set-piece area and we’ll be up for it.”
The Wallabies take on Wales on Saturday November 11, kicking off at 5:15pm local, Sunday 4:15am AEDT LIVE on beIn Sports and SBS.
