“Then Fraser [McReight] did a good job to circle the ball back to me. And then I just saw some space and went one-on-one with one of the players. As I slowly got away from him, I saw Marcus coming up and I knew that if I could interest him, it would be a good opportunity to sneak a no-looker out the back.

“I love attacking down that left side. That’s my dominant side. So I’m confident when I go down that left side. I’ve always got that left offload, and I am looking for it most of the time. I get a lot of reps in that training.

“Tate [McDermott] has been calling me Len Flickitau now.”

Ikitau’s busy weekend wasn’t over, though. The Brumbies star later jumped on social media to call out former England halfback Ben Youngs, who’d been highly dismissive of the Wallabies’ chances on his podcast.

Ikitau posted a clip of Youngs criticising Australia, with the caption “Say less”. Youngs later conceded he was eating humble pie and praised the Wallabies for their win.

“It was a bit of fun. Some of the boys saw it on their social media and joked about it. So it was good to actually win and then throw it back in his face,” Ikitau said.

Ikitau turned in one of his best Test performances at Twickenham, and what made it all the more impressive was it was only his second professional start at No.12. Ikitau had been shifted in from his usual No.13 role to replace the injured Hunter Paisami, and accommodate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in the midfield, too.

“I just said to myself, I’m going to play as a centre,” Ikitau said. “I’ve been playing 13 all my career and I just didn’t want to change anything. I just wanted to make sure that I was tackling well and attacking the ball well. It didn’t really change too much in terms of the way I wanted to play.”

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The sight of Ikitau playing superbly yet again highlighted the bizarre selections – and non-selections – made by Eddie Jones for the World Cup last year. Ikitau was overlooked by Jones, as were Tom Wright, Jake Gordon, Noah Lolesio and Dylan Pietsch, who all started and played well at Twickenham.

Asked if he’d been motivated by the snub, Ikitau said: “Not really. I’ve parked that a long time ago.”

Ikitau lauded the “freak” talent of Suaalii he’s seen both at training and on the field, particularly defending in the No.13 channel. He said the 21-year-old will only get better now the first Test was out of the way.

But a selection squeeze in the midfield looms for Joe Schmidt, with Samu Kerevi also in the squad, and Paisami due back from injury for the Lions next year.

“I think it’s a great sign of our depth. As you saw with the Springboks, they’ve got so much depth in their team. It only makes their team better,” Ikitau said.

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