Saturday was a day to forget for Ireland at Soldier Field in Chicago, but it was one that Paddy McCarthy will remember forever.
The 22-year-old earned his first cap in Ireland's 26-13 defeat to the All Blacks, after coming off the bench for Andrew Porter on 67 minutes.
And while it wasn’t the dream debut, it was still a dream realised for the Leinster prop.
"What a first cap to have," McCarthy said on Saturday evening, joining his older brother Joe – who missed this game due to injury – in becoming an Ireland international
"I haven't got to see my brother yet, but I think he's delighted for me.
"He [Joe] actually came over to Chicago and he was more excited than I was about playing. He was just so buzzed to see me play, which was class.
"I was delighted to make my debut for Ireland. It was very quick, but the week was great building up into (the game). There was great excitement around playing the All Blacks.
"The week's been brilliant. We've bumped into loads of Irish fans. It was nice just in the street or in the elevator in the hotel. People just wishing you well.
"It felt like a home game, to be honest. Lots of Irish in America, but it was really, really nice. It was cool."
As McCarthy (above) warmed up to come into the action, the game was finely balanced, with New Zealand 14-13 in front, but Wallace Sititi’s converted try on 66 minutes ensured McCarthy was coming into a very different match, one Ireland were now chasing from eight points down.
The rookie prop played 13 minutes and like most Irish players had a mixed return. A scrum penalty against him was his 'Welcome to the Big League’ moment, but he did chip in with multiple tackles, and contributed to a choke-tackle turnover.
With Andy Farrell likely to rotate his side for next Saturday’s visit of Japan to the Aviva Stadium, McCarthy may not have to wait long for his second cap.
And he knows he, and the rest of the squad, will need to improve considerably, with more tough games to come against Australia and South Africa later this month.
"We'll see how it goes selection-wise, but I'd love to play again, obviously," he said.
"I think generally the lads were disappointed. We expect a lot of ourselves. We hold ourselves to really high standards. There was obviously disappointment, but there's loads to learn from.
"We have more games to come, so we can't be feeling too sorry for ourselves. We've just got to pick ourselves up and go again, really.
"It's hard to put my finger on one thing in particular [that went wrong], but I suppose when you let the All Blacks get going, they can score points very easily.
"Before you know it, you're two tries behind, and then it's very hard to come back from that."
Stuart McCloskey (above) echoed that assessment of where the game went wrong for Ireland.
"I think that game was there for the winning, so a few moments get away from us," the Ulster centre said.
"They're an incredibly good team, get the ball wide, make breaks to score. They put us the sword there at the end.
"It's too early to tell too much [what went wrong]. There's all this disappointment.
"We'll fly back home, we'll lick our wounds. We'll probably review that Monday, Tuesday and see what we can do better.
"There's definitely bits to play that we'd like to improve on."
The 33-year-old can take little to no blame for Saturday’s defeat, with the inside centre arguably Ireland's best player until he departed on 57 minutes.
McCloskey was Ireland’s leading ballcarrier, with 12 carries for just under an hour’s work, and he consistently got the side over the gainline until he departed with a tight groin.
It was just a 22nd Ireland cap for the Bangor native in his nine-year Test career, and his first time playing against the All Blacks, having had to wait patiently for gametime behind Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw.
And McCloskey is hopeful he’s done enough to see more starts later this month.
"I feel like I've been pretty consistent during my whole career. I felt coming into this year, my rugby's at a good level. I had a good start to the season with Ulster.
"I started the game well there and had some good impacts. I'm just disappointed I couldn't kick on and play the whole thing," he added.
Watch Ireland v Japan in the Quilter Nations Series on Saturday from 12pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra
