IRELAND DIDN’T NEED to find anything near top gear to get their November schedule up-and-running on Saturday, with the manner of the victory over the Springboks, and not the record 35-point margin, pleasing Joe Schmidt.
The Ireland head coach admitted the 38-3 win at the Aviva Stadium came as ‘a huge relief’ as the hosts kick-started the international season with a four-try destruction of South Africa.
However, any temptation to get carried away by the victory — Ireland’s fifth on the bounce — was quickly dampened by the assessment that the final scoreline flattered the home side as a late onslaught yielded three tries.
Nonetheless, the Springboks’ wretched performance cannot take anything away from Ireland, who produced a clinical and calculated display to lay down an impressive early marker.
“You can only do what you can do and they did a really good job,” Schmidt said afterwards.
“I suppose if we’d really had to fight and get a two-point win, we’d be delighted as well. Sometimes when the score does get away it probably doesn’t have the same value because you weren’t under as much pressure.
“Now, we only really released the pressure in the last quarter. Until then, at 17-3, they score once and it gets to 17-10 all bets are off. It is a one-score game again.
“It was only towards the end we got away. That’s the reality for us. The size of the win is not as relevant as people might think because we are always trying to look at our own performance in the context of what we were allowed to do, what our opponents did to pressure us and how we responded to that.”
Schmidt added: “I would have to say it is incredibly satisfying. It is a huge relief to have got the Guinness series off (to a start) in the manner that we did because you are always chasing first time results.”
Three Johnny Sexton penalties and Andrew Conway’s first-half try set Ireland on their way before a late flurry saw Rob Herring, Rhys Ruddock and Jacob Stockdale, on home debut, crash over to add further gloss to the scoreboard.
It was a performance which leaves huge grounds for optimism at the start of this World Cup cycle, but Schmidt was quick to downplay its significance.
The reset button has already been hit with preparations for Fiji now underway.
“They are a really level-headed group,” the head coach continued. “I have to speak a lot less often than people probably think.
“They are very much self-led. They have a strong leadership group, a strong culture among themselves to keep their feet on their ground, to roll their sleeves up when it comes to training to make sure we can be as cohesive and accurate and combative as we can be from week-to-week.
“That probably won’t be any different once we kick off again on Monday. We’ll come back in on Sunday evening, have a quick look at a couple of things, then use that as our starting point for the week.”
The Ireland squad will be back on the training pitch in Carton House later and while the temptation for Schmidt will be to shuffle his pack for Saturday, the Kiwi native suggested the experienced spine to his side will remain.
“When we first came in two weeks ago, we said bottom line is you’ve to earn what you get,” he said.
“You’ve to really commit to what we’re trying to achieve and the energy levels have to be good. Guys have built to that really well, nobody’s let the side down. It will allow us to expand a little bit.
“But there’s a degree of comfort in that uncomfortable arena the Test match ensures exists for players to have a bit of a spine of experience, for guys who’ve been there and under pressure before, who know what the best decision is and everyone commits to that decision.”
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