Shane Daly described making his international debut as ‘special’ after the versatile Munster back was handed his maiden cap in Ireland’s Autumn Nations Cup Round 3 win over Georgia.
The 23-year-old has enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence over the last 12 months, establishing himself at provincial level during 2019/20 and producing a number of eye-catching displays post-lockdown to convince boss Andy Farrell to include him in his autumn squad.
Having seen his colleagues beat Wales and fall to defeat at the hands of England in the competition’s opening two rounds, Daly was introduced with 18 minutes to play of the 23-10 win over the Lelos.
And while he strives to add another cap to his tally in Ireland’s next outing against Scotland in the third-place play-off, Daly admits the men in green have plenty of improvements to make.
“Obviously making your debut is special, regardless of the game,” Daly said. “It’s something I’ve been pushing towards since I was very young.
“It’s a massive day for me, personally. As a game, I think the second half probably didn’t go the way we wanted it to. We weren’t clinical enough in their main zone.
“There were a few more tries we let slip out there and I think we could have put them away if we stayed on top of our processes.
“But the game got a bit scrappy. There were good things in the performance and we created chances. It’s just about taking them again, similar enough to last week [against England].”
Having replaced Munster teammate Keith Earls on the left wing against Georgia, Daly became the latest member of the Ireland U20s side that reached the 2016 Junior World Cup final to graduate to the senior team.
The likes of James Ryan, Hugo Keenan, Jacob Stockdale and Andrew Porter are also now making their way in the first-team setup, and the latter echoed Daly’s belief that there is plenty to take out of their latest display to ensure Ireland are smiling at the end of their final competitive fixture of 2020.
Porter added: “We knew it was going to be a tough battle up front, particularly in the scrum. There were one or two times where it was a bit of a lottery, but all we can do is take our learnings like we do with every game and bring it forward to the next one now.
“We won’t get away with certain things against Scotland and we definitely need to covert our opportunities.
“It’s the last game that we’ll be wearing the green jersey for a while, until the Six Nations. It’s a huge opportunity for everyone to take pride in playing for the jersey and to give the country a lift.”
