AN OZSOME OCCASION

time in a match during the win over South Africa the previous week (right).

“I did ask if there was any point and they said, ‘No’,” added the hybrid forward from Kildare. “I don’t know who did it. I went out on a poach and when I came up it was on the other side of my face. There wasn’t much I could do.

“They have brilliant medical staff in the Aviva so straight after the game they had pushed it back into place which certainly helped.

“Throughout the week I was just doing non-contact in case I did break it again. It was one of those things where it might break, it might not, but hope for the best. Thankfully it didn’t break in the end. I’ve broken my nose two or three times – I fell off my bike once when I was younger and broke it then. I broke it another time in training.”

Beirne has come a long way in just over four years as he recalls how nervous he was to make his Ireland debut against the Wallabies on the 2018 summer tour.

“It was incredibly special,” he said. “But it was a bit of a blur that whole tour because it was my first campaign and I was incredibly nervous trying to fit in as best as I could.

“There was so much information being thrown at you and obviously then the whole occasion. I’m probably a little bit more experienced in terms of that side of things now.”