IRISH KEEP THEIR BOKS TO THE WALL

JOE SCHMIDT insists he doesn’t have to worry about his Ireland players getting carried away.

Their four-try demolition of the sorry Springboks provided an early psychological boost for the autumn series.

Schmidt reckons the thrashing of the Boks is close to their best-ever result, but says there is no danger of his men (above) becoming complacent ahead of clashes with Fiji and Argentina.

“They are a really levelheaded group. I have to speak a lot less often than people probably think,” he said. “They’re 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 in training and 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.

“I don’t think there was anyone that didn’t have a really solid performance for us and I’d have to say it is incredibly satisfying and a huge relief to have got the series off in the manner we did.”