Rory Best and Joe Schmidt set new benchmark for Ireland

Joe Schmidt has insisted Ireland keep striving to improve after their history-making win over the All Blacks.

There will be no sitting back and admiring the view for the Irish squad as the rest of the country celebrates a first home victory over New Zealand 113 years after the original All Blacks, led by Donegal’s Dave Gallaher, pitched up at Lansdowne Road and won 15-0.

The dust had barely settled on Saturday night’s thrilling 16-9 win before Ireland captain Rory Best was turning a landmark performance into a benchmark from which to judge the future efforts of the number-two-ranked side in the world and reigning Six Nations Grand Slam champions. His head coach picked up the baton and ran with that one.

“I think you’ve got to keep getting better,” Schmidt said. “If we don’t get better than that I know the next time we play the All Blacks they will be.

“England have turned the corner as well, they were unlucky (seven days previously) against New Zealand - maybe not the final result because of the way New Zealand fought their way back into it - but that 15-0 start, that was phenomenal what they built at the start there.

“So, you know, there are always going to be teams that are coming up and making it tough for you.”

Referring also to upturns in form for Northern Hemisphere rivals Scotland, Wales and France, he continued: “So all that projects forward to what will be a very competitive Six Nations again.

“Yes, there’ll be some expectation because we’re the current champions and have been three out of the last five years, therefore we expect that there should be some pressure on us to produce performances in that Six Nations. But at the same time, we’re realistic, because we know how good those other teams are and we know how good we’re going to have to be.”

Schmidt said he would take heart from his team’s comfort in handling increased expectations.

“For us, we do live in a bit of a bubble. We manage our own expectation. We want to be as good as we can be, so we try to create our own expectation and, that expectation, I think Besty pretty well described it.

“We’ll benchmark tonight and say: ‘Can we reach that again? Can we make sure that we deliver at that level?’

“Now, you might deliver that again and an All Black team might beat you, because I’ve discussed three of the chances that they created tonight - they might score one or two or three of those. But you know you’re in the ballpark, you know you can foot it with the big boys when you can eke your way through an arm-wrestle like that.”

Schmidt’s continued success in 2018 and this win over the All Blacks will not, however, impact on the decision he is set to make at the end of the month over whether to renew his Ireland contract beyond next year’s World Cup.

“I’m not that good at many things but I compartmentalise really well. So I’m happy to just park that. To be honest, I’d like to think about it but it’s very much a family decision and I haven’t really seen my family since I went to Chicago (two weeks ago).

“I needed my number ones so I called in on Thursday and picked my number ones up, my suit, and came straight into the Shelbourne, so I haven’t really seen them too much.

“We haven’t discussed it. We had a pretty good chat about it over the summer and then we’ll just confirm things, one way or the other.

“I definitely don’t want it to become an issue that you get a win like that, you know, I’d be very much a sidebar because those guys were front and centre. They were massive tonight. Huge.”