Joe Schmidt defends CJ Stander red card against South Africa

South Africa, in Allister Coetzee’s first Test in charge, took advantage of its extra man to turn a 10-3 deficit into a 13-10 lead, only for the visitor to fight back superbly.

Ireland had their flanker CJ Stander sent off after 20 minutes for a bad challenge that left Springbok fly half Pat Lambie spread-eagled on the field.

Lambie lay motionless on his back, and Stander was shown a straight red card.

Henshaw made a late, high tackle on Jantjies during the build-up to the score and was sin-binned.

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.

While attempting to block a Pat Lambie chip, Stander’s swivelling hip connected with the out-half’s chin.

After seven straight test losses in South Africa, Schmidt admitted it was hard to describe his feelings at breaking the duck before a stunned 46,000 crowd.

However, Ireland shored up their Andy Farrell-designed defence and played with ambition in attack to put on 16 points, from Paddy Jackson’s boot and Conor Murray’s try on the restart.

From there, Ireland conceded a try to wing Lwazi Mvovo soon after.

He said: “It’s the start of a new journey, so we definitely want to set down a marker and standard for ourselves”.

“Probably, the fear I do have is I have no doubt that they’ll be improved in Johannesburg”.

JP Pietersen looked like he might have scored with the clock having ticked past 80, but a combination of Payne, Henshaw and Jackson forced him into touch.

The inspirational Best did not, however, finish the game as he was replaced by Sean Cronin late in the second half as a precautionary measure.

He said his players were “embarrassed” by parts of the video review of the first Test and promised his side will tighten up their game-plan when the sides meet again on Saturday. I suppose what happened in the first 20 minutes, going down to 14 men and going down to 13 men, I think we really needed to dig deep.

“I think “Faz” coming in has added a new dimension to our “D”.