WHEN RICHIE MURPHY named his 2022 U20 Six Nations squad, Matthew Devine’s name caught the eye on paper before his effervescence on the pitch.

Not because his surname posed the inevitable question, ‘Is he anything to Mike Devine’ (he is, in fact, the son of the former Connacht wing) but because he was the only Connacht player in a 31-man panel for the championship.

The Corinthians man, equally a product of Garbally College in his native Galway, had a profound influence on Ireland’s Grand Slam-winning campaign.

He largely won the battle with Munster’s Ethan Coughlan for the ’9′ shirt, scoring four tries in as many starts.

His curving snipe against Wales in Ireland’s championship opener was particularly memorable for how it lit up Musgrave Park. Even when he was used as a replacement away to France the following week, the increase in tempo upon Devine’s introduction after 45 minutes was marked. His pass to tee up Ben Brownlee’s late try was an arrow. Neither he nor head coach Murphy looked back after that cameo in Aix, with Devine starting the rest of Ireland’s games.

Devine, then 19, looked primed to earn senior minutes at Connacht soon afterwards.

That it took until January 2024 for him to earn his competitive debut — a Challenge Cup defeat away to Lyon — was a surprise to most who watched that U20s campaign.

He seemed to achieve lift-off towards the end of his debut provincial season, earning starts on three consecutive URC game-weeks in April and May of last year.

A week after earning his first professional contract, he scored his first two Connacht tries in a home win over Zebre, the first a tap-and-go 10 metres from the line with his side trailing, the second a blistering finishing from the Italians’ 10-metre line with Connacht in the ascendancy.

Devine duly held onto his jersey for the following week’s trip to Newport as Connacht beat the Dragons. A rib injury, though, in the 23rd minute of his side’s crushing defeat to Munster in Round 16, stymied his momentum, with Caolin Blade replacing him for the Round 17 meeting with the Stormers.

Further hampering Devine’s first-team opportunities this season, then, has been the arrival of Ben Murphy from Leinster, which in its own right has been a massive success story for Connacht.

Even coaches at the western province didn’t expect Murphy’s impact to be so immediate, so pronounced: he’s the third-top Irish try-scorer in the URC this season after Gavin Coombes and Tom Farrell with five. In all, Murphy has started 10 of his 12 appearances, dotting down eight times.

With the still-excellent Blade also vying for game-time, Devine has been reduced mostly to second-half salvos this season, so far making just a single start away to Perpignan in the Challenge Cup back in December and coming off the bench on eight occasions.

The signing of Josh Ioane and the injury absence until recently of JJ Hanrahan has likely been key to this: Ioane is among the more mercurial out-halves in Ireland and needs a good box-kicker and game-manager alongside him. Devine, for the moment, is less a game-manager and more an agent of chaos.

But as they host Cardiff today in their most important game of the season, a round-of-16 knockout clash against Cardiff at Dexcom Stadium [8pm, Premier Sports], Connacht have opted for the fire-and-ice starting half-back combo of Devine and Hanrahan, with Blade and Ioane backing them up from the bench (Ben Murphy is only just back in full training after breaking his finger training with Ireland ‘A’ in February).

Particularly in Murphy’s absence, Devine and Hanrahan have banked countless reps together on the training pitch in recent weeks. Working alongside the 32-year-old Hanrahan — who impressed in a coaching role with Devine’s club Corinthians while he recovered from his ACL injury and is expected to pursue those interests when he returns to Munster next season — will have been an invaluable experience for Devine, nine years his junior.

It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that Connacht’s season is on the line against Matt Sherratt’s visitors, who today welcome back four Welsh internationals in Josh Adams, Taulupe Faletau, Keiron Assiratti, and Liam Belcher.

Ireland’s western province sit 13th in the URC table with four rounds to go, the next two of which will see them meet the similarly desperate Stormers and Lions in South Africa.

A victory in the Challenge Cup, where they have a theoretical home run all the way to the final in the Welsh capital, seems as likely a route toward qualification for next season’s Champions Cup as their URC run-in — and it has the potential to be a lot more fun.

That Cullie Tucker and co. have embraced the chaos of Devine for today’s encounter, albeit with a suitable foil in Hanrahan outside him, is an exciting prospect for Connacht and Ireland fans as the business end of the season begins.

Connacht

15. Mack Hansen, 14. Shayne Bolton, 13. Hugh Gavin, 12. Bundee Aki, 11. Finn Treacy, 10. JJ Hanrahan, 9. Matthew Devine; 1. Jordan Duggan, 2. Dave Heffernan (c), 3. Finlay Bealham, 4. Oisin Dowling, 5. Darragh Murray, 6. Josh Murphy, 7. Shamus Hurley-Langton, 8. Sean Jansen

Replacements: 16. Dylan Tierney-Martin, 17. Denis Buckley, 18. Jack Aungier, 19. Niall Murray, 20. Paul Boyle, 21. Caolin Blade, 22. Josh Ioane, 23. Piers O’Conor.

Cardiff

15. Cam Winnett, 14. Josh Adams, 13. Rey Lee-Lo, 12. Ben Thomas, 11. Harri Millard, 10. Callum Sheedy, 9. Johan Mulder; 1. Danny Southworth, 2. Liam Belcher (c), 3. Keiron Assiratti, 4. Josh McNally, 5. Teddy Williams, 6. Alun Lawrence, 7. James Botham, 8. Taulupe Faletau

Replacements: 16. Evan Lloyd, 17. Corey Domachowski, 18. Rhys Litterick, 19. Rory Thornton, 20. Alex Mann, 21. Thomas Young, 22. Ellis Bevan, 23. Rory Jennings.

Referee: Luc Ramos (France). TMO: Eric Gauzins (France).