The Sale Sharks fly-half had hoped to make the cut for the upcoming tour of Australia but having previously missed out in tours of New Zealand in 2017 and South Africa four years later, he was able to deal with his feelings better.

He told Telegraph Sport: “This was my third time going through it.

"The first couple of times have probably set me up for this time. The more you go through something, the more experienced you are at dealing with it. After the initial disappointment, I was genuinely more than fine.

“It happened the day before we played Leicester away so there was no time to mope around, really. You have to get your mindset right to play the game. The difficult thing to deal with is everyone coming up and saying, ‘Oh, look I am sorry’, and that is just because people are trying to be nice. That lingers on for a couple of hours but after that it was all good."

The sportsman was initially "very disappointed" but understands selection won't always go his way.

He said: "We’re only human and naturally I was very disappointed, but I have to quickly accept it, get over it, crack on, try and stay in good form, try to win games for Sale. That’s just the way I’ve tried to deal with it.

“Your ambitions as a player are to achieve everything you possibly can, so when you don’t get selected for something you are disappointed. But selection is very subjective at the same time. Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it doesn’t."