'It's the thing you dream of' - Jamie Osborne on his debut try

In the end, the Jamie Osborne experiment never even looked like an experiment.

While a debut on this tour for the Leinster 22-year-old wasn't a far-fetched idea, nobody outside of the Irish camp could have called it coming at full-back.

It was a bold call to put Osborne in for his Irish debut on Saturday, particularly against a team like South Africa, and at a stadium like Loftus Versfeld.

Add in the fact that Osborne has played just two of his 48 games for Leinster in the 15 shirt, and there would have been major questions for Andy Farrell to answer had it backfired.

Ireland ultimately lost to the Springboks, but Osborne looked assured and comfortable in the backfield.

"To be honest I was just really looking forward to it," he said after Saturday's game in Pretoria.

"I didn't think too much about not having played full-back in a while because, even during the year with Leinster, I was down to cover full-back in training a lot.

"It’s not something that I thought about too much, I was just really looking forward to the challenge of playing against the world champions."

It wasn't a perfect display. He was side-stepped by Kurt-Lee Arendse for South Africa's opening try, although he'd been hung out to dry by the defensive line which allowed the Boks break down the right wing.

There was also the clearing kick down the right touchline which he probably should have left go out of play, but the nuts and bolts of the performance was what Farrell would have wanted.

South Africa tested him with some early contestable kicks, which he dealt with excellently under pressure, while he made sure it would be a debut to remember when he dived over to score Ireland's opening try late in the first half.

"It's the thing you dream of, it all happened