Zach Mercer has described his first international appearance as a ‘dream come true’ as he made his England debut against South Africa on Saturday.
Bath back-row forward Mercer, 21, came on for Tom Curry early in the second half of Saturday’s Test against South Africa.
England eventually won 12-11, and Mercer could not contain his pride at making the transition from an Eddie Jones apprentice to full international.
“It’s a dream to get the cap and to get the win was massive,” said Mercer, a former England U20 captain.
“Hopefully it’s not the last. I came on pretty early, I didn’t really have time to think about it.
“I didn’t get nervous, I just fell into the system and it felt like I’d played with them before, even though I hadn’t. It felt so natural, I’m really happy we’ve come out on top.”
Mercer, who won the World Rugby U20 Championship in 2016, described England’s tense victory as tough and added the speed of the breakdown was the main difference from Premiership rugby.
He also hailed the side’s character for sticking in the fight despite conceding the majority of territory and possession in the first half, as well as losing a man with Maro Itoje sin-binned after 15 minutes.
“We did the tough stuff and came out on top,” he said. “That first half showed our character, when we went down to 14 men we showed our trust in each other and that puts us in good stead for next weekend.
“We said at half-time we can’t afford to give South Africa easy points so discipline was massive. It was an arm-wrestle wasn’t it? First half they had the majority of territory and possession but they only scored one try and when Maro went off we didn’t concede any points. We stayed in the game and that just shows how we’ve developed as a team. I know it wasn’t pretty but that is a good result for us.
He added on the step up to international rugby: “I felt the difference in speed and intensity but for me the main difference I thought was the work around the breakdown. If you’re half a second too late then there is someone in there trying to slow it down. Obviously I’ll get used to that now.”
And on England’s next challenge, the visit of world champions New Zealand, he said: “We’ll celebrate this victory and then I need to fight again to get in the team.”