Ross Byrne, fly-half
On Johnny Sexton’s record:
“He deserves it. He’s been absolute incredible. He’s got plenty more to go in the next few weeks. The longevity is incredibly impressive. Remarkable.”
On Ireland’s experience:
“Unbelievable experience but then there’s a big group of lads just under 30 who have gained a serious amount of experience in the last couple of years.
On having 40 minutes at a Rugby World Cup:
“It certainly has [been a long journey for me]. Absolutely delighted.”
Step up for next week against South Africa:
“It’s something we’re really looking forward to. We’re well aware of what’s going to be coming from them.”
Conor Murray, scrum-half
On the performance:
“Tougher challenge than last week. It took us a while to break them down, they’re a pretty good outfit. But we’re pleased with where we’re at.
On South Africa:
“We’ll buzzing with nerves. But you’d be worried if you didn’t have any nerves. Playing the world champions in Paris, if that doesn’t get you excited… you’ve got to embrace the challenge.”
James Ryan, second-row
On how hard it was physically against Tonga:
“Tough first half, we had to work hard for our scores. Hard around the ruck, they’re physical men, big men and they love that stuff.”
On the game against South Africa:
“I think we’ll enjoy tonight. We didn’t drift at all tonight. It’s going to be very tough, reigning champions. We’re going to have to be at our very best. We’re maybe at 80-85 tonight, we’re going to need to be 95-100 per cent.”
Andy Farrell, head coach
On Johnny Sexton breaking the points-scoring record:
“The record’s fantastic but he’d say that’s his job. But it takes some doing.
“To us, as a leader and as a player, he’s a lot more than a points-scoring machine. How he prepares his team and gets them up for absolutely every game selflessly is more important to him and to us.”
On their next opponents South Africa:
“We’re not ready quite yet but we certainly will be.”
Johnny Sexton, fly-half
On the record:
“It’s something when you retire you can look back on and be very proud. My little boy will be very proud. He was talking about it during the week.
“It’s there to be broken now and I’m sure there’ll be some young guys eyeing it up.
“I’m very proud but tonight it was more important to get the win.”
Bundee Aki, Mastercard Player of the Match
On his performance:
On breaking the Ireland points record:
“It’s not about personal achievements for us, it’s about winning the next game and we’re delighted to get the result tonight against a very good Tongan team.
“It’s on to the next week now, it’s a massive game for us against the reigning world champions. It’s all geared towards that now.”
On the support for the Ireland team:
“Look around, it’s insane. Every game we get a crowd like this when we come to World Cups. I don’t know how many people in Ireland can afford to come over but they do it time after time and it means so much to us and I’m so happy we gave them something to cheer about.”
On the performance:
On the performance:
“It was a good performance by us. The Tongans are always going to get stuck in to you and force a few errors. It’s still a bit humid and the ball is greasy and the jerseys are very wet.
“In the first half, we had some good field position and we coughed up a bit of ball in the red zone, but I thought we stayed mentally on it. I thought we were in control of the game the whole way through as far as territory is concerned and eventually we turned that pressure into points, which is very pleasing.”
On Johnny Sexton:
“He deserves all the plaudits that he gets, for all the points that he’s scored for Ireland. For me, the main thing is how he makes people feel and leads the team and he’s one of the best in the world at that.”
On the game against South Africa:
“We need to dust ourselves down and recover properly. It’s a big week ahead. We’re playing against a fantastic side in South Africa. The couple of weeks that we’ve had so far have been building nicely. We’ll review that and look forward to the week ahead.”
Assistant coach Mike Catt: ‘We’ll know more about Bealham head injury later today’:
Mike Catt, assistant coach
On the fitness of Finlay Bealham, who left the field for an HIA on Saturday:
“We haven’t seen the medics yet this morning, the players are getting done now. I’ll know more about it later on today.”
On Bundee Aki:
“He’s grand is old Bundee. He was a bit sore after last week’s game as well, he was wrapped for two days and then all of a sudden performed like he did again on the weekend.
“He’s getting through a tonne of work and he’s playing exceptionally well. With the amount of hits that he took yesterday I suppose he is going to feel a bit sore but again, we’ll give him time to recover this week for the big battle on the weekend.”
On Dan Sheehan:
“Dan’s trained with us the past couple of days. He’s looking good.
“Tomorrow’s going to be very, very light anyway, so he’ll be able to do all the walk-throughs. We’re pretty confident that he’s available for selection come Saturday.”
On whether he’s satisfied with Ireland’s start to the competition:
“If you’d asked us before the competition to have two wins and that many points on the board in a tough group, we would have taken it.
“We’re in a good place. Injury-wise we’re in a good place.
“Tonga was always going to be a very tough game, a physical game. We’ve come through that relatively injury free which is great. Now it’s about recovery and preparing ourselves for South Africa.”
On South Africa, their next opponents at Rugby World Cup 2023:
“They’re playing a great brand of rugby at the moment. There’s a real good mix of their physicality and their directness to their ability to move the ball.
“Having Manie Libbok at 10, Damian Willemse at 15 and Willie le Roux – they’re definitely putting the ball through the hands a little bit more and they’re causing big problems for a lot of teams. We’re well aware of it, but still you’ve got to try and stop it.
“You’re playing against one of the best teams in the world. This is what World Cups are built on.”
On South Africa’s rush defence:
“South Africa have always been very aggressive in their defence and it’s worked very, very well for them. It definitely puts your skillset under pressure and it’s something we’ve been working on over the past couple of years.
“A lot more teams are becoming a lot tighter and coming with a lot more line speed. There’s still space around, you’ve just got to find it in different ways.”
Malakai Fekitoa, centre
Sonatane Takulua, scrum-half
On Tonga giving it everything but coming up short:
Toutai Kefu, head coach
Ben Tameifuna, captain
Toutai Kefu, head coach
On Ireland simply being ‘too good’ for Tonga:
“Disappointing result but honestly too good for us. Very clinical, that’s why they are the best team in the world. We’re disappointed, we’ll re-group and see what we can salvage out of this performance.
“We made some poor execution mistakes, (some) poor decisions. I thought the score at 39-16 might have been a better reflection, certainly not the extra 20 points.
“We’ll dissect this performance, we’ll regroup. We’re still in this competition, hopefully we’ll be able to throw a little bit more punches next week.”
Morbid Sugar
India and Pakistan are considered the biggest rivals in cricket. This sports feud is supposed to have begun in 1947 after Pakistan became independent from India. The rivalry is good for viewership, however. It is estimated that around 300 million people from different countries would tune in to watch the two nation’s intense matches.
Shadow Gal
Sport Trivia: Who was the first black player to represent South Africa in rugby? Answer: Errol Tobias made his debut for South Africa on 30th May 1981, against Ireland at Newlands. South Africa won the match 23-15. He went on to win six caps between 1981 and 1984.