AFP
Ireland should stay calm after edging defending world champions South Africa, captain Johnny Sexton stated on Saturday as he lauded his group’s resilience and the “insane” help of 1000’s of green-clad followers that lifted them in tense moments.
Top-ranked Ireland claimed a 13-8 assertion victory over the Springboks in a high-octane heavyweight World Cup conflict that lived as much as the hype at a sweltering Stade de France.
“We’re in a good place but we can’t get carried away, we need to keep our feet on the ground,” Sexton advised reporters, saying his group’s focus wanted to stay on successful their remaining Pool B sport towards Scotland on October 7.
“When you’re world number they use that as motivation,” he added.
The sport was arguably probably the most hard-fought of the event to date with the best of margins separating the 2 sides.
Ireland coach Andy Farrell stated his group would profit from successful such a excessive depth sport and retaining their feelings in place as they transfer ahead within the World Cup.
“How we managed to stay on point mentally was fantastic, how we kept our heads, getting those couple of penalties at the end when it really mattered, is really the big plus side of our performance,” he stated.
But whereas praising the group’s mentality, Farrell and Sexton additionally hailed the influence of the 1000’s of travelling followers who cheered and roared them on and in jubilation and sang “Zombie” by Irish band the Cranberries in unison on the remaining whistle.
“I’ve never seen a crowd like that,” Sexton stated, referring to the 30,000 or so Ireland supporters within the stadium. “They were insane and gave us the lift we needed. We play for them and they gave us the edge tonight I think.”
