Dan Leavy is starting to show just what he's capable of when given a shot.
The Leinster back-row was rightly named man of the match on Saturday night for his stunning performance in a 24-13 victory over Connacht in the Guinness PRO12.
Leavy was brilliant from the breakdown throughout and his disciplined doggedness led many, chief among them legendary Ireland centre Brian O'Driscoll, to suggest that the 22-year-old is not all that far off a call-up into Joe Schmidt's squad.
https://twitter.com/BrianODriscoll/status/792430327797014528
Tries from Adam Byrne and Barry Daly, combined with Isa Nacewa's tally via the boot, got the all-important points on the board but Leavy's defensive contribution was not lost on impressed spectators.
“We knew that Connacht liked to attack very wide and they showed that in first 20 minutes," Leavy said after the game. "They absolutely ripped us apart to put it frankly. It took us a while to build into the game but we started getting our patterns together and our defence got a lot better. Towards the end we were absolutely loving it.
"Maybe they fell off their game a bit but we were starting to build a bit of momentum and we're absolutely delighted with it.
"All week we've been working on keeping width in our defence," he continued. "They've got a lot of danger-men, Cian Kelleher on the wing who left us unfortunately, and Tiernan O'Halloran. They've got a lot of pace out wide and we just had to target them and after the first 20 minutes we weathered the storm and built into the game very well."
O'Driscoll wasn't the only keen admirer of Leavy's dutiful work as the academy product was singled out for praise by almost all watching the game.
https://twitter.com/LeinsterRoyalty/status/792418458000588800
https://twitter.com/RobertJacob25/status/792412503875657732
https://twitter.com/ColemanwithaC/status/792406721574469632
https://twitter.com/BamburyBookie/status/792426903743365120
https://twitter.com/PRO12rugby/status/792432973861756928
https://twitter.com/peterburke_/status/792418841158639616
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