Ireland coach Joe Schmidt has been taken to hospital suffering from appendicitis - he sought treatment after Ireland's victory over Australia.

RTÉ Sport understands he had been struggling with pain all day, but decided to wait until after the game to be treated.

Ireland earlier had a thrilling 26-23 victory over Australia in their final autumn international in Dublin.

Schmidt appeared fine immediately after the game, telling RTÉ Sport of the tension in the final moments of the match.

"There's a little bit of a sense of deja vu, but it didn't quite look like it did last year. Paul O'Connell led from the front - there were a couple of fantastic tackles in that last set of Australian attacks."

"You're 17-0 up after about 17 minutes, it's still pretty frustrating that you give them an opportunity to get back into the game - and they don't need too many invites."

Schmidt admitted Ireland struggled at times in the first half and said changes had to be made. "They really did come up off the line at us. It was what we expected, but it was pretty hard to control anyway.

"I thought we were passive in the first half. It wasn't what we'd planned. They were quite the opposite. They bullied us in the first half."

When asked if that after another successful year, Ireland 'just have to go and win the Six Nations', Schmidt smiled and replied, "I just gotta survive tonight" before walking away.

Analysis: Hook, Horgan and O'Shea on Ireland's win



