Continued Leinster involvement a must for World Cup hopeful Max Deegan 

Deegan must have felt that he was in on the ground floor of something big when he came off the bench for Peter O’Mahony with nine minutes to go of Ireland’s 24-14 defeat of Wales in Dublin two-and-a-half years ago.

FINDING FORM: Max Deegan during a Leinster rugby squad training at UCD. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Players dream of that first cap. They devote their schooldays to it, always striving towards that day when they take to the field at the Aviva Stadium in a green jersey and represent their country.

For most, that turns out to be just a springboard. No-one thinks of the journey ending there, not when they have just left the back roads and found the motorway, but that debut is no guarantee of other days out.