Tadhg Beirne enjoyed a special moment in Melbourne when he earned his first cap in Ireland’s Test match against Australia.
Ireland secured a 26-21 victory to level the Test series. Andrew Conway and Tadhg Furlong scored the tries while Johnny Sexton supplied the extras with the boot.
"I probably didn’t think I’d be doing that two years ago. Here I am," Beirne told RTÉ Sport.
"It was a special moment to go out there and get my first cap."
He replaced Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony with 63 minutes on the clock. The soon to be Munster player gave a good account of himself making five tackles.
"You have to be ready for any moment because boys can pick up knocks so you have to be focused when you go into these games.
First Cap. @longdogbeirne #TeamOfUs #ShoulderToShoulder pic.twitter.com/YTeX8o97bA
— Irish Rugby (@IrishRugby) June 16, 2018
"You can’t really switch off at all, it’s all about being ready for your opportunity, you might only get one opportunity so you can’t switch off.
"So from minute one to minute 80 I was ready for the call and luckily I got the call and got my moment."
The series is now tied with Australia claiming the win in first game. The two teams will meet again next week in the final Test game in Sydney.
"It’s exciting for everyone at home and everyone who has been travelling and it’s exciting for us aswell.
"We were pretty disappointed with the first game and we took a lot of learnings from it but we came out here and we improved in a lot of areas we weren’t happy with last week.
"We will look at this game and see some more areas we can improve on next week."
