SHANE HORGAN IS reaching for the exact date in his head.
He knows it’s long while ago, but the prompt of “2004″ he receives leaves him rocking his head back on his neck and issuing a raised-eyebrow ‘wow’.
Yep, it has been 12 long years since Ireland last played a Test match in South Africa. Between then and now, Ireland have ended their wait for a Grand Slam, tagged a few more Championships on for good measure and felt the lust for Triple Crowns burn out and rekindle again.
What’s rare is wonderful. But it sticks a little in the throat that just seven of Ireland’s 22 Tests against the Springboks have taken place outside of this small island. Rugby heartlands like Durban and Pretoria have shared hosting honours the same number of times as Belfast – which witnessed its one and only Springbok Test in 1906.
Of course Ireland haven’t won a game away to the Boks, they’ve barely had the chance.
As Horgan points out, before ’04 Ireland went south in ’98, and before that there was a wholly different country with a different flag and different outlook on humanity.
“It was pre-Apartheid before that,” underlines the wing who scored in Bloemfontein 12 years ago, when Ireland were still riding the crest of a wave generated by a Triple Crown victory.
“It’s kind of disappointing that we don’t tour there as often as we should. It’s kind of a crazy place that rugby is, New Zealand aside, on a different level (among the public).
“We’re all fighting for a bit of the sporting pie in every other nation, competing against football, Gaelic games, but over there – yes they have football and cricket – but it’s a rugby country.
From that point of view it’s an amazing place to experience because it’s like nowhere else. New Zealand is its own sort of entity. It’s a little bit more pizazz if you tour South Africa.
“There’ll be nobody who’s played the Springboks in South Africa this time around so from an Irish perspective, it’s an open book.”
INPHO
INPHO
On the back of a Six Nations that was a tough watch in many senses, confidence levels are not high for this incarnation of Ireland on the road to one of the southern hemisphere giants, even if they are the most cumbersome and least mobile of the big boys.
“Of all the teams in the southern hemisphere, I think we’re most equipped to go well against South Africa,” Horgan says, but adds a heavy caveat that “we’re going through a few issues ourselves.”
Ireland’s struggles have, in large, been easily explained away by pointing to the body count of injured men lost to the cause. Yet Ireland’s risk-averse and combative approach hasn’t exactly made the task of keeping key men fit easy.
“I think that we have to have a think about the way we play,” says the ex-Leinster man.
“I don’t think we can continue playing as attritionally as we do. The gameplan is so attritional and demanding on the players and (based on imposing) physical dominance.
One, I don’t think it plays to our best talents, and secondly, the turnover of injuries is too much.
“The long season isn’t going to change. It’s a bit longer this year (because of the Rugby World Cup) but we’re always going to have to address that. I think we just have to — especially against South Africa — not fall into the trap of just having a complete head-banging competition.
“If we do that, nine out of 10 times we’ll lose. If we think about things a little bit smarter, I think we could beat them more than 50% of the time.”
Currently, Ireland’s success ratio over 110 years of facing the ‘Boks is 22.7%, five wins that have all come in Dublin and four of which have been claimed since that wistful tour 12 years ago pitted a young Schalk Burger, Bakkies Botha and a not-so-young Percy Montgomery against Eddie O’Sullivan’s side.
On those two bruising mid-June post-World Cup season matches Ireland were well beaten, but the experience didn’t seem to unduly hamper players like Horgan, Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell who played in both punishing Tests.
“I still think we have enough to beat them if we play the right way. We can analyse South Africa better than any other team. Our traditional game of attacking quite hard off first phase works against them.
“Joe Schmidt will do the analysis and he’ll go: ‘If we execute x, y and z, the chances are we can score tries and win the game’. That’s fine doing that, I think they’ll have the gameplan, but the execution is something else.
“And then there’s always the over-arching idea that if you don’t reach a certain level of physicality then you can forget about it. We’ll have to compete on that, first off.”
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Ireland can't fall into the trap of having a 'head-banging competition' on rare trip to South Africa
SHANE HORGAN IS reaching for the exact date in his head.
He knows it’s long while ago, but the prompt of “2004″ he receives leaves him rocking his head back on his neck and issuing a raised-eyebrow ‘wow’.
Yep, it has been 12 long years since Ireland last played a Test match in South Africa. Between then and now, Ireland have ended their wait for a Grand Slam, tagged a few more Championships on for good measure and felt the lust for Triple Crowns burn out and rekindle again.
What’s rare is wonderful. But it sticks a little in the throat that just seven of Ireland’s 22 Tests against the Springboks have taken place outside of this small island. Rugby heartlands like Durban and Pretoria have shared hosting honours the same number of times as Belfast – which witnessed its one and only Springbok Test in 1906.
Of course Ireland haven’t won a game away to the Boks, they’ve barely had the chance.
As Horgan points out, before ’04 Ireland went south in ’98, and before that there was a wholly different country with a different flag and different outlook on humanity.
“It’s kind of disappointing that we don’t tour there as often as we should. It’s kind of a crazy place that rugby is, New Zealand aside, on a different level (among the public).
“We’re all fighting for a bit of the sporting pie in every other nation, competing against football, Gaelic games, but over there – yes they have football and cricket – but it’s a rugby country.
“There’ll be nobody who’s played the Springboks in South Africa this time around so from an Irish perspective, it’s an open book.”
On the back of a Six Nations that was a tough watch in many senses, confidence levels are not high for this incarnation of Ireland on the road to one of the southern hemisphere giants, even if they are the most cumbersome and least mobile of the big boys.
“Of all the teams in the southern hemisphere, I think we’re most equipped to go well against South Africa,” Horgan says, but adds a heavy caveat that “we’re going through a few issues ourselves.”
Ireland’s struggles have, in large, been easily explained away by pointing to the body count of injured men lost to the cause. Yet Ireland’s risk-averse and combative approach hasn’t exactly made the task of keeping key men fit easy.
“I think that we have to have a think about the way we play,” says the ex-Leinster man.
“I don’t think we can continue playing as attritionally as we do. The gameplan is so attritional and demanding on the players and (based on imposing) physical dominance.
“The long season isn’t going to change. It’s a bit longer this year (because of the Rugby World Cup) but we’re always going to have to address that. I think we just have to — especially against South Africa — not fall into the trap of just having a complete head-banging competition.
“If we do that, nine out of 10 times we’ll lose. If we think about things a little bit smarter, I think we could beat them more than 50% of the time.”
Currently, Ireland’s success ratio over 110 years of facing the ‘Boks is 22.7%, five wins that have all come in Dublin and four of which have been claimed since that wistful tour 12 years ago pitted a young Schalk Burger, Bakkies Botha and a not-so-young Percy Montgomery against Eddie O’Sullivan’s side.
On those two bruising mid-June post-World Cup season matches Ireland were well beaten, but the experience didn’t seem to unduly hamper players like Horgan, Brian O’Driscoll, Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell who played in both punishing Tests.
“I still think we have enough to beat them if we play the right way. We can analyse South Africa better than any other team. Our traditional game of attacking quite hard off first phase works against them.
“Joe Schmidt will do the analysis and he’ll go: ‘If we execute x, y and z, the chances are we can score tries and win the game’. That’s fine doing that, I think they’ll have the gameplan, but the execution is something else.
“And then there’s always the over-arching idea that if you don’t reach a certain level of physicality then you can forget about it. We’ll have to compete on that, first off.”
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