Rugby-Players can be proud of win over Springboks, says Ireland coach

By Mark Gleeson CAPE TOWN, June 11 (Reuters) - Ireland coach Joe Schmidt paid tribute to his players after a historic win in South Africa on Saturday, with the coaching staff also lauded for their planning and preparation. "It's pretty hard to put into words really. I thought it was an incredible collective effort," said Schmidt after a 26-20 victory at Newlands marked Ireland's first away success in South Africa in eight attempts stretching back 56 years. Ireland's achievement was even more extraordinary as they played for an hour with 14 men after CJ Stander was sent off and were down to 13 when Robbie Henshaw spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin. "The nine minutes before half-time when we were down to 13 players, to just put them out in the corner, just to scramble and work as hard as the players did to keep them out. "There was almost a direct repeat at the end of the second half again. To their attacking left-hand corner, we managed to scramble across and three or four players turned up to avoid the try being scored," Schmidt added. "For the players, I think they can be incredibly proud of the effort they put in." Captain Rory Best, who collected his 95th cap, said it was proof of real character through the squad, coming off a disappointing Six Nations campaign. "It's not easy to come here and win, there's a reason no Irish team has ever done it and to do it for just short of 60 minutes with 14 men, it took a lot of character. "To win any game when you're faced with going down to 14 men is special and to do it here, with everything, an even more special performance." The work of the coaches was also a big part of the success, said lock Devan Toner. "We did a lot of homework going into it and I thought our coaches put a huge amount of work into it. We put a lot of work into our defence." Ireland have Andy Farrell as their new defence coach. "He has added a new dimension," Toner said. "We're getting off the line, we're trying to put hits in and thankfully it came off today. The amount of homework we did came through." (Editing by Clare Fallon)