Ireland were better than us - White

South Africa coach Jake White denied the Tri-Nations champions had under-estimated Ireland after their Grand Slam dream was shattered by a 17-12 defeat at Lansdowne Road this afternoon.

White followed up the verbal assault he made on Irish rugby in June by declaring on Tuesday that only three of Eddie O’Sullivan’s line-up – Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell and Malcolm O’Kelly – would merit a place in his squad.

But his unflattering assessment proved wide of the mark as Ireland clinched only their second victory over the southern hemisphere giants in 17 meetings thanks to a magnificent display.

“We didn’t under-estimate them. They are a great side who did well to beat England at Twickenham in the Six Nations and they have beaten Australia in Dublin recently,” he said.

“They also showed what they can do in the World Cup.

“I knew it would be a difficult match and all credit to them for the way they performed.

“If this had been a trial game, then I would have selected all 15 Irish players for the real thing.”

Ireland controlled the first half and only eased their grip on the match in the final 30 minutes when the Springboks staged their comeback through the boot of full-back Percy Montgomery.

But White felt his side – who defeated Wales 38-36 in another nail-biting encounter last Saturday – would already have been out of sight had they been more ruthless when the tryline was beckoning.

“It strikes me that we had so many chances to finish them off but didn’t take them. I will look at the video but I can’t understand why we weren’t more ruthless when we had opportunities to score,” he said.

“In Test rugby you can’t afford to create chances like that and not take them. There were four or five times in the left corner when we had the numbers but didn’t use them.

White added: “We were 17-6 down at one stage but my players didn’t give up. They kept going when many sides could have collapsed, so I have to give them credit for that.”