Dublin: The deep squad Ireland have built up is an “excellent place to be”, captain Paul O’Connell said on Saturday after his injury-depleted side powered to a 29-15 victory over South Africa.
Ireland were without seven of the team that clinched the Six Nations trophy in France last March, missing the likes of Sean O’Brien and Cian Healy and even losing flanker Chris Henry to illness hours before kickoff.
Starting six players with 10 or fewer international appearances, including debutant centre Jared Payne and the thrice-capped pair of Robbie Henshaw and try scorer Rhys Ruddock, Ireland showed their strength ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“It’s great. I think it’s one of the things probably that’s been building over the last few years,” O’Connell told a news conference, referring to the younger players able to complement seasoned internationals like himself, Jonathan Sexton and Jamie Heaslip.
“It is an excellent place to be, not just with excellent players coming in but excellent players with knowledge inside-out of their role. That clarity, not just from 1 to 23 but from 1 to 35 or 36 gives you a lot of confidence.”
Ireland, who overwhelmed a team hardened by weeks of international rugby thanks to tries from flanker Ruddock, winger Tommy Bowe and a perfect kicking display from Sexton, were well organised throughout, a trait that’s increasingly common under coach Joe Schmidt.
They had to weather constant South African pressure to nick a 6-3 halftime lead and provide a platform for a win that Schmidt, just over a year into the job, credited to the preparation O’Connell and new forwards coach Simon Easterby.
“A lot of work went into having a really clear strategy and I think that paid dividends, that strategy well delivered by the players with the real physicality that they demonstrated was what allowed us to stay in the game,” Schdmidt said “They [the South Africans] are big and they’re going to run at or around you and you have to physically deliver, you just have to man up. That’s why I think the players can take massive credit.”
South Africa, who made numerous handling errors that were nowhere to be seen when they beat world champions New Zealand in their last game, face England next week.
“The scrummaging, the tactical kicking, the lineouts - we did that well. What we couldn’t do was hang onto the ball. That’s basic grade one rugby. It’s not that we played badly, we couldn’t kick and pass,” captain Jean de Villiers said.
“You’ve got to give credit to Ireland, they executed well, they were well prepared so it’s a bit of both but for us, it is a step back. We set our standards and it definitely wasn’t a good enough performance for the Springbok jersey.”
