Ireland captain Rory Best was quick to highlight the positive approach of his side after they made history with a first-ever win over New Zealand on Saturday.
At Soldier Field in Chicago, Ireland ran in five tries through Jordi Murphy, CJ Stander, Conor Murray, Simon Zebo and Robbie Henshaw to end the All Blacks’ run of 18 straight wins in Tests and earn Ireland's first ever win in the fixture.
Click here to buy your brand new Lions jersey from the Official Store
Ireland led 25-8 at half-time before New Zealand fought back to within four points, only for Henshaw’s effort to seal it and end a 111-year wait with a dramatic 40-29 success.
For captain Best, the quality of the performance and the decision to take on the challenge with positive rugby were particular points of pride.
Speaking to Irish Rugby TV, he said: "It’s hard to find words. All I can say is I couldn’t be prouder of the boys, the way we prepared. This goes back a long time, this has been building. We’ve got so close so many times. So many brilliant players…the heartache.
"To captain this group of unbelievable lads, unbelievable players to make history with the support we got here, it really did feel like a second home and it has done all week.
"All I can say is thanks to everyone that’s been involved in this journey.
"We’ve created history by going and attacking New Zealand. They are a quality side. It shows how good they are, how important this win was to us."
He added later: "You can see how much it means to our boys, but we just knew we had to go out and attack them. If you give them ball and stand off them they are an unbelievably dangerous outfit.
"I couldn’t be prouder of the work we put in. It hasn’t just been the last week or couple of weeks. It’s been a long time coming and it’s history made."
Head Coach Joe Schmidt believes the accolades that followed his team’s display were no more than they deserved.
“I thought there was some fantastic cohesion out there and some fantastic character (too),” explained the New Zealand-born coach.
"The lads have waited a long time for something like this to happen and they've worked hard in the couple of trainings we had. I think they're delighted and they probably need a couple of days off after that.
“I'm incredibly proud of how the boys put themselves out there and worked incredibly hard at 33-29 with that All Black wave.
"You can't beat the All Blacks with 13 or 14 or 15 or 16 players, you've really got to have about 32 because you're always going to have a bit of attrition and when those guys come off the bench they've got to add value.”
THE BETTER TEAM
