Mack Hansen may have stolen the headlines with his two-try display against the Scarlets but it was the performance of fellow Connacht wing John Porch that again caught the eye of Andy Friend.
Porch produced another excellent all-round display at a wet and windy Sportsground on Friday as Connacht got their season back on track with a bonus-point victory.
A safe pair of hands under the high ball, the 28-year-old also provided some slick link-up play in attack and looked to have put Conor Oliver over on the stroke of half-time, only to be denied by a scrambling Scarlets defence.
Throw in a much-improved kicking game and some rock-solid defending, as well as being an ever-present this season, and it's no wonder Friend singled out his fellow Australian after the 36-14 success.
"How he is not in that Wallabies set-up is amazing to me," said the Connacht director of rugby, who also worked with Porch while in charge of Australia’s Sevens team.
"He is an incredible talent. We know we can put him at full-back, he can play on the wing, his high ball stuff is excellent and he has really worked on his kicking game.
"He is elusive with the ball, brave in defence, all things you want from a bloke. He’s delivering that. He’s been outstanding for us."
Porch is in his fourth season with Connacht, having swapped Sydney for Galway in 2019, and with a Wallabies call-up appearing unlikely, could Australia's loss be Ireland’s gain?
"He’d have to have this season and one more, then he would become eligible to play for Ireland," said Friend.
"He loves it here, you can see that in the way he plays his rugby. He and his wife Ella have settled here now and the way he’s playing his footy, he’s enjoying himself."
Connacht again mixed good with bad against the Scarlets, brilliantly creating opportunities only to then squander them, and their 16-11 interval lead, courtesy of tries from Niall Murray and Hansen, felt unsatisfactory.
Friend said the dressing room remained calm at half-time, with head coach Pete Wilkins urging his players to be more decisive. They did just that, wearing the Scarlets down as they scored three unanswered tries in the final 37 minutes as Jack Aungier and Hansen touched down either side of a penalty try.
"When you look after the footy and don’t give them any release, you’re either going to get line breaks or penalties," said Friend.
"There’s a little formula for us going forward that we can hopefully start to trust and believe in.
"It’s a happy dressing room, we needed that, but at the same time it’s a dressing room that’s not going to go out and celebrate. We got the job done tonight but there’s more in us. It’s our collective task to keep working and make sure we bring that."
After losing four of their opening five matches, the Scarlets game was crucial in the context of Connacht’s season and Saturday’s trip to the Ospreys, their final game before the international break, has taken on added prominence.
"It’s a really important game for us, it’s important we back up again," said Friend.
"There’s been three really physical performances over three weeks [against Munster, Leinster and Scarlets] where I know previously we’ve been guilty of turning up one week and not the next one. Well there’s three performances where we’ve turned up. To me that’s behind us.
"What we’ve got to get better at is our accuracy. To go away to Wales to try and knock off an Ospreys side, physicality needs to be there, which we will know will be there now, but we just need to be so much more disciplined and accurate.
"If we can do that, then we can finish on a good block."
Watch Munster v Ulster and Ospreys v Connacht in the BKT United Rugby Championship on Saturday 29 October from 4.45pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
