Declan Kidney was more than satisfied after his Ireland side sealed what could yet be a crucial win in the RBS 6 Nations game with Wales on Saturday.
Ireland saw off the Welsh 27-12 with Munster duo Keith Earls and Tomas O’Leary notching three tries between them. The result sees Ireland go level with top side France though they are likely to beat Italy on Sunday and all but put the championship out of Ireland’s reach.
Still, with a home game to Scotland to come in their final encounter, the Triple Crown remains on the cards for Kidney’s men and the former Munster head coach was beaming following the clinical nature of his side’s success.
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"I'm thrilled," Kidney told RTE at full-time. “We managed to score three tries and didn't cough up any, so it's always a good day when that happens. But I just thought the boys showed an awful lot of resilience during the game and they never got frustrated.
"We said that we'd go for the 80 minutes and we were still trying things there at the end. Against Wales, the best way to defend against them, particularly late on given that they've been scoring tries in the final quarter of a lot of their games, was to attack them. But obviously by that stage we had the few points leverage to do that.
"I thought a big turning point in the game was about five or ten minutes into the second half when they put the pressure on in a scrum close to our line but didn't manage to get the pushover try. We hung in well there.
"But overall we held our discipline wel. I know we had a large penalty count against us but we didn't get frustrated at any point. I thought we defended very well. We switched from attack to defence fairly seamlessly and also counter-attacked well at times.
"Croke Park's a great venue and one which deserves a final - and that's what next (week’s game) is for us because there'll be a Triple Crown on the line. So, for the players now it'll be a case of just resting up because we've only a seven-day turnaround.
“But we're looking forward to it. It'll be a different challenge. I think that's what makes this tournament so special: no two matches are the same and we'll have to prepare as well for that game as we did for this one."