Bundee’s debut delights Ireland supremo

IF you thought Ireland’s record winning margin over the Springboks would result in Joe Schmidt breaking open the November series sponsor’s brew and crowing exuberantly from the rooftops, think again.

Instead of rubbing it into the shambolic South Africans, who are likely not to have Allister Coetzee as head coach for much longer, the Ireland boss was reserved when sifting through the mechanics of a victory where the only downside was the bloody ear which prematurely forced off Peter O’Mahony.

The generous margin of success was something he claimed he never saw coming despite the generally underwhelming away-day form of the Boks.

‘In the last four Test matches we have played against South Africa it’s mostly been one-score margins, maybe two-score, and the score flattered us a little bit. We scored the bulk of those points in that last 12, 13 minutes. Until then the game was in the balance,’ he said, refuting claims that South African rugby is going backwards.

‘In the changing room the players, physically, wouldn’t say it is going backwards. I guess the margins in Test match rugby tend to be exaggerated sometimes… we would be naïve to think that the next time we play the Springboks there is a 35-point margin between us because that’s not reality.’

Away from his tea and sympathy dialogue regarding the porous effort of the tawdry tourists, Schmidt was all smiles discussing the rapport controversial debut-maker Bundee Aki established with his former Connacht colleague Robbie Henshaw.

Aki was massively under the spotlight given his recently qualification under the 36-month residency rule, but he didn’t look at all out of the place at this level.

‘I don’t think anyone was surprised the synergy was pretty good there. Bundee got in some smashing tackles. He and Robbie have a real understanding. Bundee was super.

‘The new guys coming in did a fantastic job, but the spine of the team was very experienced. That allowed the young players to have a degree of comfort.’