Stuart McInally is delighted the gamble he took in switching from flanker to hooker five years ago has finally paid off after being named Scotland skipper.
The Edinburgh forward will lead his country during their summer tour of Canada, the United States and Argentina in the absence of regular captain John Barclay.
Yet the 27-year-old knows that was an unlikely prospect back in 2013 with his career floundering in the back-row.
Read more: Richie Gray ruled out of Scotland's summer tour through injury
The decision to move to hooker was not without risk and McInally admits the journey has since has been filled with up and downs.
But a year on from not even making the squad which toured Asia-Pacific, he has now been handed the Dark Blues' top honour by coach Gregor Townsend, leaving McInally to revel in the sweet taste of vindication.
"It's definitely the pinnacle of my career," said the man who has arguably been Scottish rugby's top performer over the past 12 months. "I didn't think it would ever happen but the way this season has gone, and the players who are not going on tour, created an opportunity for me to do it. I'm really excited about the challenge.
"It's just been a whirlwind year in terms of not playing at all for Scotland last year to playing as much as I have this year. It's been great, a big honour.
"It feels so long ago that I was a back-rower. Of course I had doubts about moving. I'd be lying if I said I was confident the whole time. There were definitely periods where I wondered if I'd made the right decision.
"But I feel that I'm firmly a hooker now, which is great, especially as for the first few years it wasn't that. I was very much a convert and everyone gave me that tag.
"Now I just feel I'm a hooker and that just makes the tough times learning how to scrum worth it. I remember getting my face planted down in the mud back at Edinburgh and getting dragged backwards. I was thinking, 'What the hell have I done here?'
"But the way this year has gone and looking ahead to the tour has made it all worthwhile."
Initially McInally was only due to stand in as captain for this summer's action but the Achilles tendon rupture suffered by Barclay could potentially see him hold onto the role into the autumn.
But the new man in charge will resist the urge to alter the way things have run under his predecessor too much.
He said: "I'm not going to change too much with being captain. I probably made that mistake in the past. You overthink things and it affects your performance.
Read more: Richie Gray ruled out of Scotland's summer tour through injury
"The best captains I've been under were always the guys who played best. I never really remember what people say.
"I'm gutted for John. It's horrible what's happened to him. I had a good chat with him before I came here. I want to make sure there is some continuity to what he was doing. It's not nice what has happened to him but I'm sure he'll come back stronger."
Meanwhile, lock Richie Gray will miss Americas tour through injury.
The former British & Irish Lion sustained a hip injury and will now remain in France to work on his recovery with club side Toulouse's medical staff.
The Scottish Rugby Union have confirmed no replacement will be called up. Townsend already has the Edinburgh trio of Lewis Carmichael Grant Gilchrist and Ben Toolis as well as Glasgow's Tim Swinson for second row options.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here