Ulster and Ireland player Tom Stewart has claimed that his Ireland debut against Italy left him 'speechless' last weekend.
The young Ulster hooker was one of many debutants in the game and was praised by Andy Farrell before the game. The Ireland coach said that the Ulster star has shown "phenomenal" confidence and believes the 22-year-old has a big future ahead of him.
This comes after a season where Stewart broke the United Rugby Championship record by scoring 16 tries.
The Belfast native crossed the line eight times in his final four matches - including back-to-back hat-tricks - to move on to 16 tries. It surpassed the feat achieved by Tim Visser (Edinburgh, 2010/11) and Rabz Maxwane (Cheetahs, 2018/19) by two tries.
His fine form for Ulster has resulted in a call-up to Ireland's training squad. Stewart replaced fellow hooker Rob Herring for the final 29 minutes in the 33-17 win over Italy
When asked how he felt about his debut, he responded by saying, "I was delighted really, speechless at the time, but for any young boy growing up playing rugby the dream is to one day pull on the green jersey and run out in front of the Aviva."
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell says Ulster hooker Tom Stewart has shown "phenomenal" confidence and believes the 22-year-old has a big future ahead of him.
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"The fact that I got to do that on Saturday with some really good lads, good teammates and good coaches was very special, and it'll always be there with me and it will go down as one of my prouder moments playing rugby."
Farrell is set to cut his squad down from 41 to 33 on August 28 after the remaining games against England and Samoa later this month. Stewart will face a battle against the likes of Dan Sheehan, Rónan Kelleher and Herring, who are Ireland regulars already.
When asked about making the squad for France, the Ulster player added, "I'm trying not to think about it too much, like I said earlier I'm just trying to take each day as a learning day."
"It's very special for me to be here as it is and learn and to be involved with the wider squad, let alone if I was involved in the World Cup squad.
"So I'm just trying to soak in and sponge as much information as I can, that will help my game in the long run and what will be off the back of that will be."
Ireland's next game will be against England on August 19.
