CJ STANDER HAS credited his Irish team mates for refusing to throw in the towel after going down to 14 men today.
After an extraordinary game in terms of drama – albeit an ordinary one in terms of quality – Wales prevailed, Ireland paying the price for Peter O’Mahony’s first half sending off and also for some awful defensive work in the lead-in to Wales’ two tries.
The plus points were also evident, though. Robbie Henshaw excelled; the team’s ability to stay in the fight was also admirable.
“If you don’t have momentum, you are on the back foot,” Stander said afterwards in an interview with Virgin Media. “We have to keep pushing. We have a massive squad but we have to keep at it and be positive heading into next week. It was not a win today but we can be proud of what we did.
“We dug deep, we really had to work harder (after the sending off). The good thing is that we practised this scenario during the week in case something like this happened.
“We didn’t get the win which was disappointing but we put in a massive fight. The jersey means a lot to the players, the team, the coaching staff. We gave an extra ten per cent.”
