It has been a rough week for Nick “I’m a goose” Phipps, but something hit our inbox this week that helped put the halfback’s bucks night antics in perspective.

Marie Murphy from Tuam, County Galway, in Ireland, read our story on Monday and wrote in about an unexpected act of kindness that affected her teenage son, Jayden.

Delighted: Jayden Murphy with Kieran Marmion's Ireland jersey, sent to him by Wallaby Nick Phipps last month.

“Jayden follows rugby teams worldwide and is especially keen on Super Rugby in Australia and New Zealand. He decided in January (our winter, which is very cold and wet) to keep his motivation for training up he would write letters to his rugby heroes. We didn't realise at the time that he had Glandular Fever, so he had been struggling with his health,” Mrs Murphy wrote.

“He has written over 100 letters and including today's mail has received 15 responses, many of which are signed autographs. However one response blew his mind, a response from Nick Phipps. Jayden wrote to two players from the Waratahs, Michael Hooper and Israel Folau. He knew Nick but he usually would only choose one or two from a club to write to. On Tuesday the 3rd of April he awoke to a parcel from Australia. Contained within the parcel was a handwritten two page letter from Nick, it is a very kind and genuine letter talking to a young boy about training rugby.”