Paul O'Connell praised the efforts of his makeshift Ireland team after they registered an impressive 34-5 victory over Georgia in Tbilisi.
Without head coach Andy Farrell and a plethora of players due to British and Irish Lions commitments, interim boss O’Connell watched his youthful side show their strength in depth with an assured display on a rain-soaked pitch.
Debutant Tommy O’Brien raced over twice inside the opening exchanges before stand-in captain Craig Casey dotted down early in the second period and Nick Timoney wrapped up the scoring late on.
"Very important game," O’Connell said during his on-pitch interview.
"A lot of players away with the Lions and we’ve got a load of guys who are just dying for an opportunity.
"And you wonder how they will take that opportunity, particularly as some of them hadn’t played games in a little while, so I’m very happy with how they went about their business.
"They had a load of intent with what they did and they were really accurate with that intent."
Casey added: "Yeah obviously very happy. A bit wetter than we expected during the week. We had to adapt our game a bit and I thought we managed the game really well.
"Our forwards were top-class, so we have to owe it to them. The feeling in the group is awesome, it’s a great start to the summer tour.
"There are a few lads making their first caps and we wanted to make it special for them and their families. Thankfully we did that."
