O`Sullivan delighted with Samoa success

Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan admitted he was delighted with his side’s emphatic victory over Samoa in Apia.

The 35 degree heat was expected to give Ireland huge problems throughout the game but the coach was happy with the character shown by his players in the tough conditions.

“It was a very clinical performance and we showed a lot of guts out there in very difficult conditions,“ he said.

“For me we’ve had some very good performances this year but this was right up there with the very good ones, Murrayfield and Australia in Dublin. Conditions were appalling, we had two players with heat stroke and to win that game showed tremendous character.

“The defence again was excellent, the first try they got was the first mistake we made in the match, a loose kick over the top and they’re the best in the world at that.

“It was a great lesson early in the game. I thought the set-piece was very good and I thought the units worked well, the back-row were very good and the midfield played well together.

“Paul O’Connell was superb, Eric Miller was outstanding, Simon Easterby had another fantastic game.”

O‘Sullivan added: “They’re a big physical team and they ran out of ideas in the end and it was all down to hard work on our part, it wasn’t the most entertaining rugby I suppose but in 35 degrees heat, you’ve got to be delighted.”

“I think the thing was to keep them under pressure in their own half and by and large we did that, we had a few mistakes and a few glitches but over the 80 minutes we really dominated field position and possession.

“As the game went on, they had to run back at us from deep but our defence was superb.”