Rugby-Irish coach Schmidt battles on with suspected appendicitis

By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Ireland coach Joe Schmidt had to fight through the pain to guide his side to a November series clean sweep on Saturday, watching on with suspected appendicitis as they edged past Australia in a frantic game. The 26-23 victory followed an impressive win over South Africa two weeks ago and last season's Six Nations championship triumph as Ireland put down a marker for the 2015 World Cup. Their New Zealand coach had little time to enjoy his first win over Australia, leaving for tests as soon as the game ended. "He's had some pretty bad stomach pains during the day and he toughed out the game in true Joe quality," Schmidt's assistant Les Kiss told a news conference. "He's going to get assessed to make sure everything's okay." Ireland led 17-0 after 14 minutes thanks to tries from Simon Zebo and Tommy Bowe but Australia replied with three of their own to square it up at halftime before Jonathan Sexton kicked them to victory in a bruising second period. While he said the hosts let themselves down by allowing the visitors back into the game, Kiss praised them for regrouping after the break particularly when Schmidt had to add "heart palpitations" to his stomach pains when Australia emptied a bench that contained Will Genia, Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale. After a finale that saw Ireland's Gordon D'Arcy, Rob Kearney and Sexton leave the field with concussion, captain Paul O'Connell was pleased his side finished strongly having been prone to concede late in recent games. "I didn't think for an instant we were going to pull away or anything like that, you'd like to be a bit tidier in what we did but they just came back at us with some really high tempo rugby," Ireland's man-of-the-match said. "To see the quality they brought off the bench and for us to be able to defend the way we did...was very satisfying." The last time Ireland won all three November tests eight years ago they went on to be humbled at the group stages of the following year's World Cup. "We've been here before with a good Autumn and it didn't serve us well and that's probably the main lesson you learn," lock O'Connell said." (Editing by Tony Jimenez)