Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt was delighted to see a few of his new faces star in Ireland’s romp past Italy on Saturday night.
Jordan Larmour marked his first start for his country with a breath-taking second-half hat-trick as the men in green cut loose at Soldier Field in Chicago.
In addition to Larmour, there were also debuts in the back line for Will Addison and Ross Byrne in second-half appearances off the bench.
And with a number of senior stars like Rory Best and Jonathan Sexton left at home for the trip to America, Schmidt has a number of selection debates to consider.
Next up this autumn for the reigning Six Nations and Grand Slam champions are Argentina and Schmidt is already excited.
“It was topsy-turvy first half and a bit frustrating, I felt a bit sorry for the crowd because they didn’t have too much to enthuse over,” he said.
“We stagnated as the half went on and the whole thing became quite stodgy but we got our tempo in the second half.
“That built a bit of confidence for Luke (McGrath) and Joey (Carbery) to go after the game.
“There were obviously a few stand-out performers, the way Jordan (Larmour) finished that last try was spectacular.
“You don’t see that too often in an international. A guy beating the number of players he did and cramping up at the end, he was getting pretty tired after a fair bit of running in that game!
“It was great for them (Addison and Byrne) too, Ross (Byrne) kicked really well and got himself into the game pretty quickly.
“As did Will, he will be frustrated about a couple of things, but at the same time he looks sharp out there. He was a bit limited for chances but I thought they both acquitted themselves well.”
