South Africa 24; Ireland 13
Scorers Ireland: Tries: Dan Sheehan Cons: Jack Crowley (1) Pens: Sam Prendergast (2)
South Africa: Tries: Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach, Penalty Try, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu Cons: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (1)
Well, if that’s not a wake-up call, I don’t know what is?
Yes, we can point as Head Coach Andy Farrell did to our bravery when defending with 12 players on the pitch against South Africa’s 15, and yes, we can give out about our 18 penalties conceded but the truth is, we are just kidding ourselves.
This was men against boys and we were thrown around, particularly at scrum time, like rag dolls. Truth is the Springboks have gone forward at a rate of knots while we have gone backwards from the time we could three years ago at our peak beat the All Blacks in their own backyard in a three-test series.
Any and his backroom staff must realize at this half way point to the next World Cup that we have slipped considerably and our Leinster dominated pack and indeed team have been worked out by opposition managers in how they play against them.
Time for Andy to tear up that script that has served us well and like the Springboks, find a new dynamism that combines back and forward play to devastating effect.
It’s all well and good blaming “stupid errors” on our 24-13 defeat and lauding the pride in the jersey, but right now what does that get us? England are advancing at a rate of knots and are now ahead of us; We play France away in our first match and while they are not exactly pulling up trees either, a defeat there could set us on our way to a horror mid-table or worse season.
After this debacle, which saw James Ryan get a 20-minute red card for a stupid foul, and four more Irish players in the sin-bin, meant we had to play a portion of the game with a dozen players on the field..
Jack Crowley and Andrew Porter’s yellows came in the final minutes of the half and the visitors ran in an extra try to lead 19-10.
After that it was damage-limitation time and while we ended the game camped on their line, they reality is we wouldn't have breached their defense if we were there till midnight.
Farrell’s explanation was thus: “A few stupid errors from ourselves playing the ball through the ruck, and I think with three offside penalties. They're the manageable ones that you don't give a team like that access, but we did. In general as well I thought we just lost our composure a little bit as far as that's concerned.
“Certainly, at the end, though, as far as our shape is concerned. Some of the stuff that we did really well last week didn’t really transfer this week. Our kicking game was a bit long and a bit off at times.
“Our high ball stuff was way better last week and our conversion in the 22 was way better obviously than last week,” he stressed.
The positive from the Head Coach’s quotes came with the following: “I suppose, first and foremost, you look at yourself and why things have happened. So, we’ll do that, and make sure that we learn the lessons from that.”
That said the pride factor was referenced by Farrell once more: “My overriding thought of the game is that I’m unbelievably proud, so for you to start a conversation off like that doesn’t sit well. If you can't learn from that, then you're in the wrong place, really.
“Going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for the country, certainly in that first 10 minutes of that second half, it was absolutely amazing. And I think you could see with the crowd, the effort that they put in, that the crowd recognized that and supported them.
"To be able to win a second-half 6-5 under those types of circumstances, I know it doesn’t tell a full story of the second-half, but it’s actually amazing, really, that that happened, or that occurred.
“The lessons to learn are, when you fight so hard to give yourself a chance, and you’re at 72 minutes, trying to overplay probably in your own 22, you’ve still got time on the clock to put ourselves back in the right field positions.
“We overplayed a little bit and wasted a little bit of time, but then we found a way, and with four minutes to go, we had a glaring chance to score a try under the post, and had we scored that with four minutes to go, who knows what could have happened with a little bit of momentum, but we couldn't do that, so all credit has to go to South Africa,” he pointed out.
Though he went off the point there a little, correctly he had no issue with Ryan’s tackle getting an upgrade to red following his silly clearout attempt on Malcolm Marx. However, quite rightly he was at a loss to understand how the officials didn’t punish South African out-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu after his blatant shoulder charge on Tommy O’Brien earlier.
“I'll let you be the judge of that,” was his laconic reply.
And so the Springboks ended a 13-year long wait for a win in Dublin but it was the manner of their dominance in this game which will cause sleepless nights to the rugby world and Ireland looking in. They lorded it over us at the Aviva Stadium and could have won it any way they wanted.
South Africa's 13-year wait for a win in Dublin is over, with the world champions proving their credentials with a 24-13 win against Ireland after a remarkable game at Aviva Stadium.
The positives for us was our fighting spirit - we never gave up and we never stopped trying to do the right thing. However, when you can’t compete on a level footing at the scrum, the modern game exacerbates your problems and the discipline goes out the window as you concede penalty upon penalty, card upon card.
And so it came to pass, we lost Ryan to a 20-minute red and had four others watching with a yellow emblem - Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy. Porter and McCarthy were victims of the poor scrum which the ‘Boks particularly decimated in the run up to half-time.
Playing against 12, the South Africans should have run riot and we can thank their desire to dominate in the tight at scrum time rather than attack us on the scoreboard that saved the outcome to 24-13 instead of 50 plus.
It is quite laughable really that we outscored them 6-5 in the second-half when we were there for the taking. The men in green, not us, were 19-7 ahead at half time thanks to tries from Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach and a penalty try, before Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu's sublime dot down on the stroke of the break took the game beyond our reach.
We stayed in the fight thanks to a spectacular Dan Sheehan try - our only one in the 80 mins with Jack Crowley converting. Sam Prendergast, who is improving but clearly not at the level of a Sexton, kicked two penalties, missed tackles but tried to get us on the front foot.
For the record, the referee Matthew Carley got off on the wrong foot with no help from the man in the box on the first call which should have seen Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu binned. He then largely reffed only one team until the last minute so overall a horror show from him, though it is important to say his calls on the penalties and penalty-try in the scrum were correct.
Ireland: M Hansen; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J Ryan, T Beirne; R Baird, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: R Kelleher (for Sheehan, 55), P McCarthy (for Van der Flier, 40-49, and for Porter, 60-70), F Bealham (for Furlong, 60), C Prendergast (for Ryan, 39), J Conan (for Baird, 60), C Casey (for Ringrose, 72), J Crowley (for O’Brien, 32 [HIA]), T Farrell (for Hansen, 64).
