Jordi Murphy understands how important it is to impress if given a run-out in Saturday’s World Cup warm-up against Wales at the Millenium Stadium.
Murphy is part of Ireland’s extended squad of 45, which will be whittled down to 31 ahead of the Rugby World Cup next month.
And the Leinster flanker is well aware of the need to perform when given a chance at this stage.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport’s Michael Corcoran, Murphy said: “There are not really many second chances. When you get your chance you got to go out and take it.
“You may not be in one position that often and the next thing you’re thrown into it last minute, so you just have to make the most of it, do your homework during the week and when you get your chance take it.”
Wales coach Warren Gatland has named four previously uncapped players in his starting XV - Dominic Day, Tyler Morgan, Ross Moriarty and Eli Walker will all make their debuts against Joe Schmidt's Six Nations champions - but Murphy is expecting a tough challenge regardless.
Murphy, when asked if Wales might hold back at all, replied: “No, absolutely not, especially in a sold-out Millenium Stadium aswell.
“It’s a warm-up friendly, well I’m not going to call it a friendly, it’s a pre-World Cup warm-up game. There’ll be a lot of mixing and matching so it’ll be interesting to see how they turn up.”
On the injury front, only Luke Fitzgerald, Sean Cronin, Marty Moore and Cian Healy are doubts for Saturday’s tie, but the quartet are recovering well from their respective injuries.
Schmidt's men will open their World Cup Pool D account against Canada at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday 19 September, before clashes against Romania, Italy and France.
Ireland vs Wales kicks-off at 14:30 on Saturday.
Follow the action on RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday Sport, and on our live tracker on RTÉ.ie/sport
