Gaffney: We can play better

Despite Ireland’s convincing 15-6 victory over an in-form Australia side at Eden Park on Saturday, backs coach Alan Gaffney maintains the best is still to come from this Irish team.

Emphatic as the win was, Australian born Gaffney attributes much of the plaudits to the Irish pack who won vital battles in the scrum, lineout and breakdown, insisting that the backline has more to offer.

Unsurprisingly given the threat of the Australian backline, Ireland chose to play the majority of the game in the tight, leading Gaffney to suggest we can deliver a more incisive attack behind the scrum in the coming games.

"I think we can play better than that. There's a lot left in our attack," he told RTE Sport. "I think we've got a lot more to offer. We've shown that in the past. We've got the capacity to play and we want to play."

"That was a performance, but it was nowhere near our best performance. The forwards were very, very good (Saturday) night, the scrum was good. But we know from a backs' perspective, we played the game very narrow and that's what we intended to do - we didn't go out and try to run around them, we never intended to do that.”

Gaffney thinks this impressive win may trigger some more exciting rugby, like that which won Ireland the 2009 Grand Slam but is quick to state that complacency won’t be an issue in the remaining Group C contests.

"We may go out and play entirely differently against Russia, we've got the capacity to do that.

“But we won't be treating Russia with any less respect than they deserve - they deserve a lot of respect, as do Italy. We're only halfway there.

“Brian (O'Driscoll) addressed it after the game in the dressing room, as did Paul (O'Connell) and a number of the senior players.

"We can't leave that win on the shelf and now not go out and perform in the final two pool games.

“We know we have to beat Italy to go through - there's no surety that we're through, we know that. It's a day off tomorrow (today, Monday) for the boys, well deserved. We had a travel day today. But from Tuesday onwards it will be full bore."

Given the contrast in form heading into Saturday’s clash in Auckland Gaffney believes his countrymen may have underestimated the threat Ireland posed.

"I possibly think, and this is not being disrespectful, but I don't know if they did quite show us enough respect.

"Australia rely very much on the individuals, (Kurtley) Beale and (Quade) Cooper and (Will) Genia doing what they do. And they've got a lot of quality there.

"But full credit to our guys, we battled through and stuck it through and played a very strong game. It's a huge win.

"Coming down and winning in the Southern Hemisphere is not something Irish sides have done in recent years.

“We do regard it as a monumental win. It ranks very highly in the games I've been involved in."