Schmidt Happy
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Schmidt Happy
Ireland boss Joe Schmidt was happy to win ugly after his side held off Italy on Sunday.
Keith Earls scored the only try of the match to overtake Brian O’Driscoll as Ireland’s record try scorer at the Rugby World Cup with eight.
"I said last week I would take a one-point win. I would rather not though. Sometimes you have to win ugly,” he said.
"We let them get too much ball back. We tended to give back a lot of the ball we got. It was pretty difficult to break them down. I said earlier in the week they are difficult to break down, particularly when they are up for it.
"I think we have been lulled into a false sense of security having played two tier-two teams (Canada and Romania). Italy had a win-at-all-costs attitude and that made it tough for us and at times we made it tough for myself.
"Sometimes it's just not your day. In the context of that we are delighted to get the result and qualify for the quarter-finals.
"We were stretched at times, even the try (by Keith Earls) came a little bit too easy, too early in the game and we switched off a bit. We believed things would happen rather than we had to make them happen and they almost made us pay for that.”
Keith Earls scored the only try of the match to overtake Brian O’Driscoll as Ireland’s record try scorer at the Rugby World Cup with eight.
"I said last week I would take a one-point win. I would rather not though. Sometimes you have to win ugly,” he said.
"We let them get too much ball back. We tended to give back a lot of the ball we got. It was pretty difficult to break them down. I said earlier in the week they are difficult to break down, particularly when they are up for it.
"I think we have been lulled into a false sense of security having played two tier-two teams (Canada and Romania). Italy had a win-at-all-costs attitude and that made it tough for us and at times we made it tough for myself.
"Sometimes it's just not your day. In the context of that we are delighted to get the result and qualify for the quarter-finals.
"We were stretched at times, even the try (by Keith Earls) came a little bit too easy, too early in the game and we switched off a bit. We believed things would happen rather than we had to make them happen and they almost made us pay for that.”
