Former Ireland international Shane Byrne joined Off The Ball to revisit the moment he finally realised his dream of pulling on the green jersey.
It may not have exactly been against England or France in a packed Lansdowne Road, but as far as Shane Byrne is concerned the opposition or the venue mattered very little when it came to the winning of his first international cap.
"Romania, in a 60,000-seater stadium with about maybe a good 400 people there," he recalled of his first Ireland appearance in conversation with Off The Ball. "It wasn't quite a glamour fixture but I got my first cap and it was just an experience like nothing else."
Throughout a professional career that would bring plenty of those monumental days where he and Ireland went up against the world's best, the question of his 2001 breakthrough brought back plenty of nerves and excitement, however.
After waiting what felt like an eternity, Warren Gatland, who was coming to the end of his tenure as Ireland's head coach, gave Shane Byrne his chance and commenced a career on the international stage that would see the Leinster man represent the British & Irish Lions only four years later.
Of that first game against one of Europe's minnows, however, Byrne remembers every vivid moment and a pressure like no other.
"Nothing in my life is straight forward," admitted Byrne of his tendency to do things the hard way. "I just so happened to be getting married six days after the Romania game in June.
"So, my gang couldn't fit my stag in and they decided to just do it over in Romania for my first cap. There was about 16 of my friends over there which was a bit odd because it included my mother and my sister - a weird stag!"
Selected on the bench by Warren Gatland for the game, it had been made clear to Byrne, who wasn't far off his 30th birthday, that he would be making his debut, nevertheless.
"I still couldn't believe it myself though," he recalled, "because in my last game in the AIL against Cork Con, I'd done a grade-2 tear on the medial ligament in my knee, and a grade-1 tear on my ankle ligaments on the opposite leg.
"I wasn't exactly in great shape, but the physio told me that if I could take the pain, he'd get me through it."
On a hot day in Bucharest, the patched-up Shane Byrne made the breakthrough.
"When I finally got onto the pitch, I could feel the emotion of it," he explained, "and I could almost see myself playing, that's the way I remember it.
"My stag were over on the opposite end of the pitch and had been enjoying themselves after they discovered it was about 20 pence for a beer. So, where was the first line-out I had to throw in my international career? Directly in front of them!
"Since that moment, I've thrown in front of 80,000 people on my own line two points up or down in a game, but I've never felt pressure like that. Thankfully Mick Galwey caught the ball."
The first of Shane Byrne's many appearances in an Ireland jersey, you can watch back his interview with Off The Ball in its entirety here.
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