Jack Carty says he was "absolutely delighted" to make his senior international debut in Ireland's Six Nations victory over Italy, and is hoping to "build towards cap two."
The Connacht out-half came on as a late replacement for Johnny Sexton in the final three minutes of normal time in Ireland's 10-point win, and got his hands on the ball a few times before the final whistle.
It was a special occasion for the Athlone-born star and the friends and family who travelled to support him.
"Yeah, absolutely delighted," he told RTÉ Sport after the result at the Stadio Olimpico.
"There was about 15 or 16 people over and was kind of hoping I'd get on towards the end. I was delighted for all them travelling over that I did."
"You're trying to savour it all. Obviously I was delighted to get on for the couple of minutes but I suppose, when today finishes, I'll soak it all in and then hopefully build towards cap two and then five and hopefully then keep building from there."
Following Wales' win over England on Saturday, Ireland were under particular pressure to come away with a bonus-point victory to keep their Six Nations hopes alive.
They achieved that goal, but it was another lacklustre performance from Schmidt's charges after their opening round defeat at home.
"We were delighted to get the five points," says Carty.
"There's probably a few things there [we need to work on], obviously the final pass. If we got that pass away with Earlsy and Chris [Farrell], we'd have been underneath the sticks and it could have been a completely different game.
"Fair dues, Italy at home filled the pitch really well, big physical men. At times, that's the way it is, you're going to have to play attritional rugby."
Carty's opportunity in Italy is the culmination of months of consistency in the Connacht jersey, having improved many facets of his game under Andy Friend.
This Six Nations campaign has been a remarkable time for the province, with Tom Farrell and Caolin Blade also earning call-ups to the Ireland squad at the outset of the competition while Ultan Dillane, Quinn Roux and Bundee Aki were all included in the starting team line-up to face Italy.
Carty predicts a bright future for Connacht players on the international front.
"If Connacht keep putting in performances, obviously we've been quite competitive and really really good this year. I think we were up in third up until the weekend. But look if we keep continuing to play really well and stay in play-off spots a lot more lads will be in the shop window.
"I'd only been in once or twice before and trying to [learn] the difference between how Connacht play and how Ireland play. There's a lot of similarities but then again, it's quite different as well so it was about soaking that in.
"And the first few days was quite tough trying to learn everything, but obviously great people around me. A few of the Connacht lads were there and I was able to get it quite easy."
