PAUL O’CONNELL WAS thrilled with Ireland’s defensive effort to keep a powerful South African team at bay for long portions of the 29-15 victory at the Aviva Stadium this evening.
Heyneke Meyer’s side enjoyed long periods of possession in the first half particularly, but Ireland racked up a tackle count that exceeded 120 to repeatedly stifle the Boks’ attacking intentions.
Irish captain O’Connell compared his side’s efforts in defence favourably with this time last year, when there were errors aplenty in a win over Samoa in Dublin. Despite the lack of preparation time coming into this Springboks fixture, O’Connell felt there was genuine defensive cohesion.
It was great. Looking back on it, it was great at the time. It’s very tough – they’re big men, they carry hard and they’re big on the gainline. We were lucky that we made some really good tackles, really good decisive chop tackles when we came off the line.
“Without Rory Best and Chris Henry, you probably lose a bit of that pressure on the ball when you chop. But I think a few guys stepped up and did a lot of that today. The defensive effort is something that we speak about a lot. Obviously Les [Kiss] is excellent at what he does.
“I think we played the first game of the Guinness Series last year and the defensive effort was really poor, the linespeed was really poor. So to be able to come in with a few mini-camps then a two-week prep, for the defence to be, I suppose, so tight and united with linespeed was very good today.”
The fact that Ireland’s victory came without the likes of Sean O’Brien, Cian Healy, Best and Henry made it all the more impressive.
O’Connell and head coach Joe Schmidt pointed out that injuries have never been used as an excuse by Ireland themselves, although the lock admitted that the depth of playing quality is encouraging.
“I think it’s one of the things that has been building over the last few years,” said O’Connell. “Obviously two seasons ago a lot of players were blooded through injuries.
Even for Mads [Ian Madigan] to come in there – we had a penalty on our own 10-metre line on the right. I was trying to figure out what to do and he was calling for the tee already, he was mad to kick it over, really confident.
“That’s another layer down again. It’s an excellent place to be, not just with excellent players to come in, but excellent players having knowledge inside out of their role.
“Guys like Tommy O’Donnell, who was outside the 23 this morning, and then into it. He knows his role inside out and that clarity, not just from one to 23 but probably one to 35 or 36 gives you a lot of confidence.”
Ever the perfectionist, O’Connell pointed to flaws in the Ireland performance when he was asked if it was the finest display during his spell as captain.
“It certainly was a good performance and to beat any Southern Hemisphere team is great. To beat a Southern Hemisphere team that’s had a lot of preparation time before coming here and a really tough Rugby Championship is brilliant.
“There was a few disappointing things,” continued O’Connell. “From a personal point of view, the line-out I think. Sean Cronin threw really well, I probably didn’t call too well. Scrum I think can be improved a little bit as well.
“I don’t know if it’s the finest performance, but certainly one of our best victories in my time as captain.”
Originally published Saturday, 22.18
