'Let's be honest, it's wonderful to win' - Farrell on Irish victory over Springboks

Andy Farrell hailed his team's resilience as Ireland came up trumps against the world champions in Paris last night.

The Six Nations champions withstood a second-half onslaught from South Africa to record a 13-8 victory and set themselves up for a chance to win Pool B when they take on Scotland in two weeks' time.

Under the cosh for long spells in the second period, Ireland survived four missed kicks to prevail by five.

"Our resilience which has been really good of late anyway, as you can imagine," Farrell told RTÉ Sport when asked what pleased him most about the win, their third in a row against South Africa.

"That was a proper game, a traditional game that had everything, there were ebbs and flows, ups and downs and how we managed to stay on point, mentally, was fantastic.

"The game was never going to be perfect. The first half I thought we had the rub of the green.

"As far as field position, we probably didn't captialise on that a little bit. But it was certainly roles reversed in the second half.

"But how we kept our heads, getting a couple of penalties at the end, when it really mattered is the big plus side of our performance."

As well as the 11 points that kickers Mannie Libbock and Faf de Klerk left on the field, Ireland overcame a malfunctioning lineout with six throws missing their targets.

It threatened to cost Ireland dearly but they somehow found a way out.

"Our discipline in the second half was very good. In the lineout it was roles reversed in terms of penalties, the early engagement. And the penalty that we got on their line to kick the [last] goal.

"Again, we stayed at it mentally and rolled with the punches but came out strong the other side as well."

So much was written in advance about the impact of the Boks'