Jean Kleyn has gotten off to a "good start", according to Joe Schmidt who handed the South African-born lock his Ireland debut against Italy.
The second row completed the three-year residency rule during the week and played for most of the 29-10 win in Dublin.
"I thought Jean acquitted himself really well," said the head coach of the 25-year-old Munster player.
"Our scrum was really good in the first half. We probably had four scrums and got penalties off them, on the back of some really good power that he through it.
"Around the pitch his work-rate was excellent, a couple of really good impact tackles, that certainly stopped the Italian momentum when he got involved.
"He's a big man, around 6 foot 7 or 8 inches, about 120kg, he is your genuine stock standard tighthead lock, who gets through a lot of work in the tight.
"He defended well, it was a good starting point for him."
Front row forward Andrew Porter, who started at tighthead before moving across after half-time, agreed.
"He's a big boy around the field, he's great to have behind you in the scrum, he's energetic around the park so I think he did really well on his debut," said Porter.
"We've seen what we can do for Munster over the last few seasons so it's great being able to play with him and get new combinations into the team in games like these, trying new things before we head off."
Asked about the decision to replace loosehead prop Jack McGrath at half-time, the head coach confirmed it was part of the plan.
"Jack was tactical definitely, we were really happy with his first half.
"He got off the line and made some good impact tackles.
"Jack, for us, is very good around our attacking breakdown as well but we wanted to shift [tighhead] Andrew Porter across and give him 20 minutes [at loose].
"At the World Cup you're going to have to have at least one prop who can play both sides."
Ireland's next game is against England in Twickenham on 24 August.
