The Gaelic football trio of Rory Beggan, Mark Jackson and Charlie Smyth are extending their stay in the US in anticipation of being offered NFL contracts following last Sunday’s international combine in Indianapolis.

The three kickers took part in a series of drills at the Lucas Oil Stadium as part of the international player pathway (IPP), and Tadhg Leader of the Leader Kicking initiative believes they did enough to impress NFL scouts.

"This is an event that every single kicker and punter in America wanted to be at,” the former Connacht Rugby player told RTÉ.

“Only seven and five (of each position) got invited and we were part of that group, so the boys held their own, which was what I expected, but I also hadn't done this before in that competitive environment.

"So it was a huge amount of nerves. We actually got off to shaky enough start. We missed a kick, three lads, earlier than we would have expected to inside very kickable range.

"But then we found a huge sense of rhythm where each of them went through and banked six out of six between 30 and 50 yards."

"So initially the plan was to fly them back to Ireland tomorrow but as a result of all the interest we got, we decided we're going to keep them down in Florida for another three weeks because the expectation is teams are going to fly them into their facilities for medicals, for interviews, for workouts.

"So, pretty mad thing to say, but I think a couple of the lads are going to be getting signed to contracts in the next two to six weeks. Potentially sooner but that's the usual timeline for these things. It's gotten very real.”

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