“The youngest team ever to win a play-off game and the first team ever to win as the seventh seed – that just shows you that everybody here is capable.”

Dan Whelan, rookie punter with the Green Bay Packers and the first Irish-born player to feature in the NFL play-offs in over four decades, is enjoying the ride in his debut season.

The Packers produced the biggest upset in last weekend’s wild card round, eliminating the Dallas Cowboys with a comprehensive 48-32 win.

Few outside Wisconsin tipped the underdogs to spring such a surprise in Texas, but Whelan says they were determined to upset the odds and approached the game with the right mentality.

The message in the locker room pre-match was simple, according to Whelan.

“We have just got be grimier than them – fight for it more,” says the 24-year-old, who was born in County Wicklow before moving to California as a teenager.

“They didn’t want to go the full length of the game – we did.”

It was a huge win for the Packers, stunning a fancied Cowboys side attempting to reach their first Super Bowl in more than 25 years.

But Whelan says the Packers have already moved on, with another daunting divisional round prospect on Saturday at the San Francisco 49ers, the number one seed in the NFC conference.

“Now it’s a bigger one this week,” adds Whelan, who supplanted nine-year veteran Pat O’Donnell for the punter position at Green Bay.

“So, it’s on to the next – we have more games to play and we’re not done yet.”