Not since his debut in this fixture 12 months ago has Craig Casey had the chance to play inside captain Johnny Sexton.
But his 18 minute cameo alongside the Irish great yesterday had an added benefit, backed up by a full Aviva Stadium.
"It's a brilliant experience," Casey said following yesterday's Guinness Six Nations win against Italy.
"Obviously growing up, Johnny was one of the players I was looking at and wanting to play inside all your teenage years and getting the chance to do it is unbelievable.
"He's quality, like. His leadership is unbelievable, he's an unbelievable player.
"It was great to get a chance to play with him and show what I can do for him."
The Munster scrum-half won his fifth cap in yesterday's 57-6 canter, a win that seemed inevitable following the 18th minute red card of Hame Faiva, which led to Italy being reduced to 13 players.
"Of course it's tough on them," Casey continued.
"I mean it’s not easy when you go down one man, then of you go down two men it’s very difficult and in fairness they did stick in for the whole game so credit goes to them in fairness.
"Look, a good win for us and a great day for Mikey Lowry on his debut and we’re glad we got the win and the bonus point on his debut."
While Ireland secured the bonus point win which leaves them second in the table behind France and well positioned to pounce on any French mistake, Ireland were far from their best against the Italians.
And with Ireland facing a huge step up in class when they travel to Twickenham to face England in Round 4, Casey says they will have to be far more disciplined if they're to get a win in London.
"We probably gave away penalties that we probably didn't need to. That didn’t help, so there are work ons…so it’s a good place to be coming into this week. I know it’s an off week. We can work on those things at training. I know we’ll be training against the 20’s so it will be good to put those work ons to test again them. So it’s a good place to be."
Player of the Match Josh van der Flier (above) highlighted the breakdown as an area Ireland need to improve at. While Italy were constantly outnumbered they were persistent in slowing down Irish ball at the ruck, and had picked off two jackal penalties prior to Faiva's red card in the first quarter.
"It was something that wasn't so pleasing," Van der Flier said of Ireland's discipline at the ruck.
"Italy went hard there but we know we can be a lot better from our ball-carrier, in a couple of instances could have got it back quicker and then at other times, ruckers getting here quickly. So a combination of things.
"They got good poaches under pressure so we’re not pleased with how that worked out.
"We lacked a bit of accuracy.
"It's always hard against 14 or 13 when you’re trying to get to the space, you need to play like it’s 15 and just pick the holes.
"The ruck could be improved and there will be other details we will look at that we didn’t get quite right, so we’ll have a bit of work to do. The result was good."
