“It goes back to my Ireland Schools’ days. You think it’s going to be the greatest honour you’re ever going to achieve. You’re playing for Ireland. Being from rugby families like we were, you’re going ‘this is incredible.

“You get so emotionally charged for it. And Ireland’s Call comes on that you’ve heard so many times in the old Lansdowne Road or watching on TV, and you’re belting it out.”

“I remember we played France or England. Kicked off. I’m flying up going ‘the first guy is getting it’,” he said.

“They catch it, kick it out, and I’m turning around, running back to get a ball, still thinking ‘somebody’s gonna get it.’ I fired this throw in and it went…like I tell the story that it went three times the height of the person I was throwing it to. It wasn’t that bad. And it flew over the top.

“From then on, I went, I can’t go into a game…because it’s so emotive to me, Ireland’s Call. And actually, even the tail end of the Irish national anthem, you know the way you get that build-up for that crescendo at the end.”