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Cape Town - It's been some month for 23-year-old tighthead Wilco Louw.
A Springbok debut against the All Blacks at Newlands came on October 7 and then, on Saturday, he lifted his first ever Currie Cup title when WP outclassed the Sharks 33-21 in Durban.
Louw and the other members of the WP front row were immense on the day as the visitors absolutely obliterated the Sharks at scrum time.
It was another significant step in Louw's journey to making the Bok No 3 jersey his own.
At this stage, with the struggles of Ruan Dreyer on the international stage well-documented, Louw is surely the favourite to start at tighthead for the Boks when they take on Ireland in Dublin on November 11.
A soft-spoken man with a strong faith, Louw said after the Currie Cup final that it all still felt a little unreal.
"Sometimes I feel like I still have to pinch myself," he said.
"That Test against New Zealand came so quickly. I was playing Currie Cup and then Coenie (Oosthuizen) got injured.
"Playing for the Boks was a dream come true.
"And now to win the Currie Cup ... 2017 was my great year."
2017, though, is far from over for the Boks and Louw will soon have to come back down to earth.
On the prospect of a first Bok start on the end-of-year tour, Louw was trying to not get carried away.
"It's a dream. It's every guy's dream to play for their country," he said.
Western Province coach John Dobson said after the match that the scrums had been an important part of his side's preparation for the final last week, but nobody could have expected WP to have to kind of dominance they had.
"We worked together very hard on our scrums, and as JC (Janse van Rensburg) said during the week, the scrum can lose you a game or win you a game," Louw said.
"For the guys it's amazing. There are guys like JC and Jano (Vermaak)... guys who are 32 and have now won their first Currie Cup. We worked hard for this."
