This season's Six Nations has brought many new names to Irish public's knowledge, as a raft of young talent have donned the green jersey with impressive displays.
The likes of Chris Farrell, James Ryan, and Dan Leavy have marked their appearances with great performances, but it's the two games that Andrew Porter has played as tighthead prop that have stolen the headlines in recent weeks.
Having started his career as a looshead prop, Porter has made the almost unheard of transition to tighthead seamlessly over the past year, a move which impressed the Irish Independent's Vincent Hogan during Off The Ball's Sunday Paper Review.
"Those of us who have bluffed our way through internationals for 30 odd years have to hold our hand up and say, most of us at least, what goes on in the front row is a complete mystery to me, but apparently what he's done by moving from loosehead to tighthead is the most difficult of all".
"It was very engaging watching him come under pressure against Wales last week, where they were clearly targeting him, and you're thinking the game is on a knife edge right up until the Stockdale interception really, and he just held his own".
Hogan lauded Porter's positional transition, noting the relative lack of experience he's had there before not just stepping up to perform his duties at the highest level of the game, but adding an attacking threat too.
"Last Saturday was the 22-year-old's fifth start at tighthead in professional rugby. That's astonishing, absolutely astonishing".
"He is the prototype of the modern prop, he just doesn't hold up a scrum, the figures for his carries in the two games against Italy and Wales are off the charts".
Former Ireland international tighthead Mike Ross' comments on Porter were brought up during the discussion, with the Leinster man claiming to earmarked Porter's potential move to the other side of the scrum. The move saw his own position come under threat, but was an obvious switch in Ross' mind, and Hogan can see why, then lauding Ireland's new look prop options and their ability to help out in the attack, something we've lacked in that position during Ross' years in the shirt.
"He saw something in him straight away and I think probably what he saw was this incredible physical strength. All of the descriptions of him are of this outlier".
"Ross would say this himself, Ross was never the most dynamic man around the field, Furlong and Porter are sensational around the field".
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