'It was unreal' - young fly-half Makepeace-Cubitt savoured his Saints debut
"I think I did alright," said George Makepeace-Cubitt when modestly assessing his Saints debut showing at Ashton Gate last Friday.
And the 20-year-old certainly did do alright, especially when you consider his only previous league experience was in National League 1 with the Reading Rams and a couple of games on loan at Bedford Blues in the Championship.
Makepeace-Cubitt was thrown in at the deep end as England duo Fin Smith and George Furbank were at a Red Rose training camp in Girona last week.
And rather than sink, the youngster swam, largely looking composed throughout his 80 minutes on the field.
The only disappointment was that he deserved his night to end with a conversion that earned Saints a losing bonus point, but his tough touchline kick came back off the post.
Overall though, Makepeace-Cubitt had reasons to smile when he spoke to the media to reflect on the Bristol baptism of fire.
"It was unreal," he said. "It was a dream for me to play in the Prem and to get that ticked off as one of my goals is pretty unreal.
"It was a lot faster (speed of game) than I've experienced. You've got to make decisions pretty quick.
"The physicality side of the game is another level and then obviously playing in front of that many people with cameras on you all the time is pretty new as well. I haven't done that since the (England Under) 20s and I couldn't really compare it."
Makepeace-Cubitt wasn't the first talented young half-back to have been handed a Saints league debut in a game at Bristol as 19-year-old scrum-half Archie McParland did it last season.
"I got told during the week that boys' debuts haven't always gone that well recently but the squad around me was really supportive going into it," Makepeace-Cubitt said.
"It was a bit of banter between me and Archie when he talked about when he went there (to Bristol) for the first time.
"I found out I'd be starting on Monday morning and I definitely think I needed those five days to prepare it so I'm glad they let me know."
Makepeace-Cubitt is now preparing for a first home outing for Saints when they face local rivals Leicester Tigers in the Premiership Rugby Cup opener on Friday night (kick-off 7.45pm).
"I'm very excited to hopefully get some consistent game time week in, week out with a similar group of boys and build that cohesion and put some good performances out there," he said.
"There's a lot of talk about this week still being a derby and it's definitely something I'd love to be involved in."