While there is a part of him that would dearly love to add to the 70 senior international caps he has accrued to date, the 35-year-old Meath man can also see a personal upside to not being involved.

“I do kind of enjoy having the weekend off to have a look at it and watch it, but then you see afterwards and you remember going back to The Shelbourne. All the celebrations and being part of the squad and all that sort of stuff,” Toner said.

“I do kind of miss that and the build-up to an international. Whether it’s going to The Shelbourne and having your walk-through the day of the game and then going to see the Aviva. You do miss it when you’re watching it like that, but then I do like having free weekends as well.”

Even if he isn’t making the cut himself, there continues to be a strong Leinster contingent within the Ireland squad. No fewer than 12 players from the eastern province started the recent autumn international wins over Japan and New Zealand, while 14 were named in the match day 23 for last Sunday’s 53-7 victory against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium.

Given how substantial their representation has been over these three games, Toner believes what is being done behind the scenes at Leinster must have seeped into the international set-up on some level.

“The little things that the lads have been doing in Leinster training, they would naturally have brought into their game.

“Andy Farrell has his own game plan, all the coaches have their own game plan as well, but little things that lads would be doing, they’d be bringing into the camp as well. You’d like to think that it would have a knock-on effect in camp.”

Whereas in previous seasons Leinster used to see regular league action in an autumn international window, a new-look rugby calendar instead left them idle for the past four weeks. Their most recent competitive outing was a 31-15 away success over Glasgow Warriors in the United Rugby Championship on October 22, but they finally return to the field of play this Saturday.

Interprovincial rivals Ulster visit the RDS for a round six URC encounter (kick-off 8pm) that will kick-start a block of 10 games in as many weekends for Leo Cullen’s men.

Leinster currently sit at the summit of the competition’s league table, having accumulated 24 points from a possible 25 to date. Ulster are four points adrift of the Blues in second place, but Toner is anticipating a backlash from Dan McFarland’s charges following their heavy defeat to Connacht last month.

“It will be good, I’m looking forward to it. It’s always good when they come to the RDS. We have a bit of a rivalry. The last time we played them in the RDS [a 21-17 triumph in the Rainbow Cup last May] our set-piece was scrappy and we didn’t play to the best of our ability.

“We know that and they obviously put a lot of analysis into what we did that day. We’ve been gearing up to this game for a while now, but so have they. They’ve had a good couple of weeks to focus on us and they would have been very disappointed with their last game out against Connacht. It’s all gearing up to be a good game.”