Alex Brown has won praise from Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter after stepping up against Connacht.
The 25-year-old was handed a chance in the European Challenge Cup tie as fellow props Moray Low (ankle) and Tomas Francis (back) were injured.
And the former Saracens youngster more than played his part as the Chiefs took a firm grip up front, winning a series of penalties in the scrum, as they went on to win 33-24.
Head coach Baxter said Brown's challenge is now to cement his place in the matchday 23 for the return to the Aviva Premiership action against Newcastle on February 14.
"Alex did very well," said Baxter. "If you want to be one of the better teams in the Premiership, you're going to have quite a lot of guys in Alex's position where they get limited time at times, but when they get the chance to step up in big games they perform very well.
"If you look at some of the teams who have done well historically in the Premiership, notably Leicester, sometimes they deal with one or two injuries very well.
"That's Alex's battle now, to keep performing at that level and command that spot for himself. We don't mind making changes, that's been shown in the past – when guys come in and play well they keep their places.
"I was very pleased for him, very pleased with the way he performed for the team, and the pack of forwards as a whole came together really well in the scrum. You could see it was a very concerted effort from the whole pack, our maul defence improved in the second half and that took away a lot of the momentum opportunities that Connacht had."
Low and Francis should be fit next month, but Brown is likely to get more chances to impress against Bayonne in the final European group game this weekend, and in the two LV= Cup pool matches that follow.
