"Instead of marching in Aberystwyth he'd be better off behind his desk in Cathays Park sorting the problems he said he would sort out."

The criticism by Conservative Senedd Member Andrew RT Davies of the first minister sums up what is likely to become a familiar line of attack over the next four years.

He is referring to Rhun ap Iorwerth's appearance on Saturday at an independence rally organised by the campaign group Yes Cymru.

Thousands marched through the streets of Aberystwyth and for the first time they were joined by a first minister who explicitly believed in their cause.

It also comes a fortnight after another first: a gathering of nationalist leaders in Cardiff, when ap Iorwerth appeared alongside Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill and the SNP's John Swinney.

What has become clear is this is a first minister who will not be afraid to bang the drum for the goal of independence when he is given a chance.

He has grasped two high-profile opportunities in quick succession.

What we do not know yet is how frequently he allows himself to take on that role of campaigning for his desired outcome, and whether it distracts him from the functions of first minister.

He will publicly dismiss, and will no doubt have already priced in, the criticism that has come in thick and fast from his opponents, but he will also be aware that the accusation of neglecting the day job could leave a sting if it manages to stick.

And this is where he will have to play it carefully.

The next four years are not about independence.

The first minister told us that himself in the Senedd election campaign as he preferred to focus on other policies, and he will be judged primarily on his record on the delivery of public services like health and education, rather than the constitution.

But when the inevitable bumps in the road happen, and if a perception of being distracted manages to cut through, then it will make it more difficult for him to make the case to voters that his government is on the right track.

Is he providing ammunition for his critics to hit him with when the time is right for them?

His main defence so far has been that his government is capable of doing more than one thing at the same time - in other words, it can do the hard yards of cutting waiting lists and improving literacy at the same time as talking about the constitution.

It should also be said that, as leader of Plaid Cymru, he is doing what it says on the tin.

After all, it would have been odd for him to barely mention independence having become his party's first first minister.

As well as reaching out to those undecideds, all party leaders have to keep their base happy - those supporters who have knocked on doors for years, and got the party to where it is today.

And turning out on a Saturday afternoon in Aberystwyth to say that there is no turning back on the journey to independence, or declaring alongside other nationalist leaders that Westminster's time is coming to an end, are the kinds of things that go down very well with the party faithfuls as they gear up for their conference in Llandudno next week.

Talking of undecideds, I was in the centre of Cwmbran interviewing shoppers for the Politics Wales programme about the long-term prospects of independence.

While not all of them agreed with the idea, they engaged with the question in a way that would have been hard to imagine if I had done a similar television package a decade ago.

So ap Iorwerth will feel he is simply reflecting a changing mood in the country, even if polling is broadly showing no more than a third of people support independence.

Also, the photocall with nationalist leaders was always going to happen at some point, so by getting it done early on he can at least feel he has unambiguously set out where he wants to take Wales in the long run, and now focus on the day of job of dealing with the daily challenges of running a government.

However he spins it, it feels like independence is not going to be too far away from the headlines over the next four years.