Could it have gone any better?
Ireland's 29 - 15 win over South Africa will go down as one of our greatest wins and tonight on Off The Ball ex-Ireland head coach Eddie O'Sullivan and Trevor Hogan joined us on the line to talk about the making of the victory and the elements that Ireland can hone.
"Personally I'm in a scenario where no matter what adversity the side is facing, if Joe Schmidt's in charge and you have people like Paul O'Connell and Jonny Sexton playing for you, we need to have a belief in what we're doing," said Trevor, with Eddie adding that Ireland knew where their strengths lay in the match against South Africa.
"It wasn't the success rate of the tackle. It was the success of the work-rate," he added, explaining how Ireland overcame set piece issues to still triumph against the Springboks.
The overall stats also do not reveal the genius of the gameplan according to Trevor, who picked out the way that key moments that swung the match in Ireland's favour.
"I think we need to step back and recognise how well-crafted those plays were and give them credit for doing them at the right moment," he said.
Eddie felt the turning point was an aimless kick by Willie Le Roux which Ireland then took control of at the start of the second half.
"South Africa came full-metal jacket but they got put away comfortably," said Eddie, while Trevor felt South Africa were "rattled" by Ireland's ferocity. He also thinks that only an outstanding team will beat Ireland from now on under Schmidt because of the confluence of emotion and accuracy.
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