Schmidt feels scoreline flattered Ireland

Editor

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt thinks the scoreline flattered his team after they thumped South Africa 38-3 at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.

The Irish were rampant in Dublin as they beat the Boks in many facets of the match, giving them a perfect start to their November campaign.

After the win, Schmidt was asked if he expected such a dominant performance from his side in the opener, to which he said: "No, not at all."

"I think in the last four Test matches we’ve played against South Africa it’s been one or two-score margins.

"The score flattered us a little bit, we scored the bulk of those points in those last 12, 13 minutes. We went flat in that third quarter, disappointed with that, but at the same time they had to put themselves back in the game."

Schmidt clearly isn't getting ahead of himself and admits his players would be keeping their feet on the ground after this win over the Boks.

"In the changing room the players physically wouldn’t say (South African rugby) is going backwards," he added.

"I guess the margins in Test match rugby tend to be exaggerated sometimes — they were well-beaten by New Zealand (in September) then the All Blacks would think themselves lucky to have won (in October).

"We would be naive to think that the next time we play the Springboks there’s a 35-point margin between us, because that’s just not the reality."