Two minutes into Jack Regan's Super Rugby debut and he is being pounded by the open palms of All Blacks prop Joe Moody.
“I just grabbed the collar of his jersey and he just lost his s***, didn’t he? I couldn’t believe it," Regan explained.
"I was getting hit in the head. In my head I was like, ‘Happy days, he is getting a red card here’. So, I didn’t retaliate, I just left him to hit me.
“I was, ‘F***, this is an All Black hitting me, this is going to be great, he is going to be gone, one of their main players’. After he let go I roared over, ‘You’re gone, lad, you’re gone’. Obviously, no penalty, no card!
“The referee came out after the game and said they had made a mistake and he should have got a yellow card and when I look back now it was harmless enough. It was an open palm but he did hit me in the head a number of times. You have got that aspect too. I don’t know – I just laughed at it, it was a bit of craic.
“Everybody is asking why didn’t I hit him back? I’m two minutes into my debut, I don’t want to get a card like I did on my Otago debut where I got a yellow. I was like ‘Jaysus no, I was going to let him swing for the hills and hopefully see him walk off with a red card’. He just lost it and it was funny. But I got into the game after that so it was good."
The fact that Regan was even starting for the Highlanders is a remarkable story. The Offaly man, son of hurling legend Daithi, was in the wilderness after being let go by Ulster in early 2020.
He told Rugby Pass: “I went up there June 2017 on a three-year contract and halfway through I got a bad back injury which had me out for the guts of a year and slowed a lot of my development.
"It was through squatting. I was squatting every day, squatting lower than I was used to. Whatever happened I got a bulging disc and had sciatic all down my right leg.
“Nerve pain is nasty and I had that for over a year. I tried to rehab it and it wasn’t really going anywhere. I bit the bullet and got an operation at the end of 2018, got back and made my debut before Christmas 2019 (off the bench at Leinster).
"I wasn’t sure whether I would get a development deal or not. I was quietly hoping I would but I didn’t know. Then two or three weeks after that game I was brought in and told I was being let go at the end of the season.”
Then came a text from Bronson Ross, a former Ulster player, who was coaching with Dunedin Sharks - a club in the third tier of New Zealand rugby.
“Out of the blue I get a message from a lad in New Zealand and I’m, ‘Who the f*** is this lad? There is no way I’m going out there’.
"But then I chatted a bit with my dad, who would be a big influence, and my agent John Andress and I was, ‘F*** it, I’ll go’. At that point, I didn’t really have anything to lose and a week later I was on the plane.”
This was March 2020 and no sooner had 23-year-old Regan arrived did New Zealand go into a strict lockdown.
“Lockdown at the beginning was a bit of a nightmare, I had just come over and was settling in and then you’re in lockdown.
"I didn’t really know what I was going to do but when I made my mind up I wasn’t going to go home, I just put the head down and made sure I was going to be ready when it all got going again. We ended up back playing at the beginning of June and I was lucky. New Zealand handled everything so well.”
Things progressed quickly for Regan. He caught the eye of coaches at regional side Otago with whom he featured in last year's Mitre-10, and then the Highlanders came calling.
"Tony Brown [head coach of the Highlanders] had been watching all the games and I’d heard rumours that maybe the Highlanders were going to have me in as an injury replacement player but I didn’t really know.
“I was, ‘Will I get a job in an off-licence or a bar, the Mitre 10 is over?’ Ireland was back in lockdown, so I wasn’t going to go home. I was hoping the Highlanders would approach and thankfully a few days before Christmas I got the call. Tony rang and said, ‘We’d love to have you in, just make sure you’re ready to go’.
“I was over the moon and I was ready when we came in on January 12. I aced all the tests and made sure I was going to make that my point of difference. It was only a three-week pre-season but the heat was unreal.”
Just over a year after being let go by Ulster, Regan was starting in a Super Rugby match against some of the biggest names in world rugby.
He said: “There is no shortage of locks in Ireland and when I was in Ulster I didn’t really have the dog, a ruthless edge. When I came out here I was on my own and just had to make up my mind whether I really wanted to be a pro rugby player. That was the switch for me and every game I played I had that bit of edge.
“Even with the Sharks I was a pure dog and I brought that into the Otago games. That was a big thing for me. I can’t say I slipped under the net in Ireland – when I was in Ulster, maybe I didn’t deserve a contract as I was out with that injury for ages. The Ulster coaches have their agenda as well, they have to do their jobs. But I just got an opportunity here and I have taken it.
“Coming from a GAA background, there was always that bit of dog in me and I have always known that. While I was with Ulster it didn’t really come out. It maybe came out in one or two games where I was really good but I didn’t have it every week. I knew that and when I came out here I was like, ‘I’m just going to be a dog here and see what happens’ and here I am now bringing it in every training session and even in the walkthroughs."
The Birr man admits that home could come calling eventually but he is happy to continue fighting to make a name for himself in New Zealand.
“I am having a bit of interest from back home, but I’m waiting to hear whether the Highlanders are going to offer me something, a proper deal. I don’t know where I will be. At the minute, everywhere in the world apart from here is in lockdown and it’s an absolute nightmare, so I’m in no hurry to go back to Ireland or anything purely because of the lockdown.
“I miss everyone at home, I miss my dog. Everyone knows Mafi back in Birr as he is the mascot of our club and would be at all the games. We named him after Lifeimi Mafi, who played with Munster.
"I used to support Munster all the way up – me and my dad used to go to all the games. He will be twelve in May, so I’m just hoping when I do get home, whenever it is, he will be there.
“I’m enjoying my rugby now and am just focusing on making the team next weekend when we play the Hurricanes, making sure I’m involved. I’m not looking at anything else. I will let everything in the background work its way through and I’ll weigh everything up and see where I want to go and whatnot.
“I’d definitely recommend coming over to any lad in Ireland, even if they are not in a provincial set-up. New Zealand is the home of rugby. They literally live and breathe rugby.
"Everything is rugby here, it’s immersed in everything and it’s 100 per cent the best place in the world for that. I’m just lucky to be here. Right place, right time and I’ve loved every minute. It has been a journey alright.”
