Jacob Stockdale says he wants to emulate Keith Earls following a try-scoring debut against the USA Eagles on Saturday night.
The Ulster centre was on the Ireland Under-20 team just last year and given his chance to shine on the summer tour, he has already impressed.
Earls picked up his 60th Ireland cap in a man of the match performance in New Jersey, setting up Stockdale for his try and the 21-year-old says he wants to carve out a career like the Munster man.
"Earlsey was brilliant - he has 60 caps and you can see why he has so many games for Ireland. He’s set a benchmark for what I want to achieve," said Stockdale.
"It’s a massive step-up - my lungs were burning after just the first five minutes. If I’m being honest, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind couple of weeks but it has been made a lot easier by the other guys on the team.
"They have helped me integrate into the team and taught me anything that I needed to know.
"It’s a pretty fantastic experience, try or no try. To cap it off with a score was something special.
"It has been fantastic. If you told me at the start of the season that I would be making my Ireland debut by the end of the season I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s been brilliant!" he smiled, speaking to RTÉ Sport.
After their nine-try 55-19 hammering of the USA, Ireland move on to a two-game tour of Japan with tests over the next two weekends.
Japan host the next Rugby World Cup in 2019 and they are a rising force in the game. Stockdale is hoping that he has done enough to earn more caps this summer, though he knows the Brave Blossoms will present a different challenge to the Americans.
"Japan are a completely different animal to the USA," he noted.
"We made a lot of mistakes out there on the field and they’re mistakes we’re going to have to tidy up and correct over the week. There were a good few learning points in that game and hopefully we will be able to use them to right any wrongs."
Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt has taken a largely second-string side on this tour, with some key players rested and others on the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand. James Ryan also marked his senior debut with a try against the USA.
