Rihanna's video hunk thankful for promo role

Rihanna's rumoured new beau was thrilled the superstar cast him in her latest video - because he feared he'd need a "normal" job after his boxing career hit a rough patch.

The Umbrella hitmaker personally picked sportsman and model Dudley O'Shaughnessy to appear in the promo for We Found Love, and the pair sparked rumours of a romance after hitting it off while shooting the video earlier this month (Oct11) in Northern Ireland.

But the hunk reveals he only got the chance to star alongside the Bajan beauty after approaching a modelling agency after he was overlooked as a competitor at the London Olympics in 2012.

O'Shaughnessy tells London's Evening Standard, "I was ranked number one in the country - I was a prospect for the Olympics. I won the (Amateur Boxing Association) Championships and still got overlooked by Team GB (Great Britain).

"When something is your dream and you do everything you need to do to get to your dream, but then you're still not getting picked, you think 'What will I do?' I was thinking, 'I'm going to have to get a normal job now. I'll have to be a plumber or something.'"

And O'Shaughnessy insists it was easy filming intimate scenes with the sexy singer, because she was so down-to-earth.

He adds, "I wasn't star-struck at all - she's just such a nice girl... She's such a humble down-to-earth girl and that made it even better for me because I didn't feel intimidated or anything.

"We just got along - we were just mates. It took about three-and-a-half days to film. I loved it. I didn't want it to end. Not just because it was 'a certain person's' video but just because I love being on set."