AFTER what Peter Bracken has experienced in the past fortnight Friday night’s Welsh Magners League derby between the Scarlets and Newport Gwent Dragons should be a breeze for the Irishman.

No sooner had he answered an SOS from Dragons coach Paul Turner to fill the prop vacancy caused by a rash of injuries than he was plunged straight into a Heineken Cup tie against Gloucester at Kingsholm.

That was just days after arriving at Rodney Parade from his native Galway where he had been playing amateur rugby for Galwegians, unable to secure a professional contract and starting to look at a career outside rugby.

He went on as a second half replacement at Gloucester because the Dragons suffered yet more injuries which meant he started the Heineken Cup game against Glasgow a week later and played the whole game.

“Adrenalin got me through the Gloucester game, I went in with lots of calls and differerent things in my mind and I relied on my experience to get me through,” he admitted.

“After that I had a full week to prepare for the Glasgow game which went well. I think I did reasonably well for the first 60 minutes but I had to dig deep for the last 20 and it was fairly hard playing at full velocity for the whole 80 minutes, but circumstances dictated that I had to do it.

“There were a few penalties given against me in the scrum during the last 20 minutes which was a bit unfair, but fatigue had a bit to do with it. It’s still been brilliant for me but not great that so many props have been going down though it’s given me a chance to play and I’m really enjoying it “Luckily I had prepared myself and trained as if I was going to be playing full time so that I could take the opportunity if it arose.

“Now I’m looking forward to the Scarlets game, I’m used to derbies with Connacht. It’s something similar as we’re all passionate Celts, these kind of games are what you play rugby for, it’s why I didn’t give up the ghost.”