It was never the most sexy position, but maybe Bob Dylan was right. The times are-a-changin’.
The term second row wouldn’t exactly fixate an untrained eye, fitting for the workhorse that traditionally bears the title.
The retirement of Wales legend Alun Wyn Jones was decent timing amidst the evolution. Cauliflower ears held together by tape, tainted in muck that he never failed to find, on pitches as impenetrable as a carpet.
With a face as red as determination itself, the look wouldn’t be quite complete without the raggedness.
And now ahead of Leinster-Munster, second row is the Vanity Fair of rugby.
The immensely talented Tadhg Beirne misses out, while his Ireland compatriot James Ryan can also put the feet up and have the leftovers of Christmas dinner, minus the guilt and shame that usually accompanies it alongside the cranberry sauce.
Just as the towering Thomas Aherne has completed his transition into the backrow, Gavin Coombes has shuffled the other way like the work Lemony Snicket, this time a series of unforeseen events.
It seemed Coombes is as out-and-out a number eight as you could find. Aherne and his bestial frame of six foot and nine inches is surely too rangy to play anywhere else but lock.
You’d think that alright, but not in this multiskilled climate of utility.
And we haven’t even mentioned the Voldemort of Munster rugby. He who must not be named, or RG Snyman as he’s known across enemy lines, will be a man a touch relieved he will play no part.
The next big thing in every sense, Joe McCarthy, will pack down alongside Ross Molony, arguably the most unlucky man on the island to not have an Ireland cap to his name.
All that, just to cover four starters out of thirty. This second row business ain’t what it used to be.
The other big question is the soap opera, Leinster’s heir to Johnny Sexton. An endless script, a revolving door, and this week it’s Harry Byrne who returns. Ciarán Frawley reverts to 12.
And of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas entertainment without the mercurial Simon Zebo. Munster’s box of tricks makes just his second league appearance of the season at full-back.
With Munster almost at full strength and hurting off the back of a timid start in Europe, an upset could be on the cards.
But these are also the kinds of wins they need to swing the pendulum of Irish rugby south once more.