Rugby-Makeshift Ireland hand Schmidt one of his "proudest days"

By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Ireland coach Joe Schmidt had said he wanted to try a few things against Australia to prepare for the Six Nations but playing with a third-choice flyhalf at fullback and replacement scrumhalf on the wing were probably not among them. Yet Ireland survived a slew of injuries and an Australian comeback to claim a third southern hemisphere scalp in six months with a thrilling 27-24 victory on Saturday that Schmidt called one of his proudest as a coach. "It certainly for me would be one of the proudest days, with a team that has shown immense character. It wasn't perfect but you probably can't expect perfection when those young guys step up," Schmidt told a news conference. "Simon Zebo said it was like the creche out there, he was the old guy looking after the kids running around and it's probably reflective of how much control he has as a dad because the kids were all over the place!" It was a day when injuries bit hard into the Ireland squad. Already missing Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw, and having lost Sean O'Brien just before kickoff, Ireland's injuries swiftly began to snowball. Zebo was already on the pitch as an early replacement, when flyhalf Joey Carbery had to come in at fullback after wing Andrew Trimble pulled up in the first half. Scrumhalf Kieran Marmion then joined an experimental backline on the wing after centre Jared Payne failed to emerge for the second half. After winning in South Africa for the first time in June and claiming their first win in 111 years of trying against the All Blacks earlier this month, Ireland captain Rory Best said it put the squad in a good position for next year's Six Nations. "It's obviously a pretty big achievement and... obviously a good sign for the depth we have and are now building," Best said. "After the World Cup last year, there was talk of a big gap between the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere. Look at the way England are playing, look at Scotland. We didn't think there was a gap 12 months ago and we've now shown it against three of the top nations." Australia coach Michael Cheika was critical of how often his side were penalised, blaming a 13-3 penalty count on the "consistency of the application of the laws" and said he would be speaking to officials about it after the game. He was also disappointed his side would not be travelling to England next week chasing a clean sweep of November test victories and would "need to be 40 minutes better" to win their final tour game. "You can't come for just one half. It's something we'll learn. We did it in Scotland and got away with it. We played some really good rugby in the second half today but just didn't have enough pay at the end," Cheika said. "Maybe I'm naive as a coach to think you can still play good rugby and win test matches but I'm not going to change my tune, we want to play good footie, we've just have to play some more of it and obviously after this, we have to be more disciplined." (Editing by Toby Davis)