A WEAKER TEAM than Ireland would have started to unravel after 20 minutes in Paris on Saturday.
At that stage, Andy Farrell’s side had lost five of their eight lineouts.
Ireland had already turned the ball over on six occasions inside the South African 22.
And despite a mountain of territory, Johnny Sexton and co. had zero points on the scoreboard. South Africa had three.
If it hadn’t been Ireland, you’d have said with some certainty that a team with those stats after the opening quarter would lose the game. Most sides just cannot afford that kind of dire return on attacking platforms. But Ireland aren’t most teams.
They’ve made a habit of steadying themselves during tough games when the circumstances might encourage players to lose their heads or feel sorry for themselves. Ireland are a resilient bunch. And so it was that the Irish coaches were relatively calm despite the poor opening quarter.
“There’s so much belief in what the players are doing,” said Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby. “They pitch up time and time again. Over the last couple of seasons, in particular, they’ve managed to put in performances like that.
“That’s not a one-off. We’ve done it in New Zealand, we’ve done it in the autumn series last year against South Africa, so that doesn’t surprise us. I guess the level of physicality and the brutality of the game these days, that’s something that the players have got to get their heads around and to a man they did that tonight.
“They pitched up time and again. It was relentless at times, we had a lot of defending to do and at the end the lineout defence, a couple of opportunities for them to have a crack at us and the lineout defence has held strong.”
The best thing for Ireland is that they know they didn’t get close to their best on Saturday night in Paris. To be fair, neither did the Boks. But this Irish team move forward determined to improve greatly on what we saw at Stade de France.
“We got the reward but there’s lots we could be better at and that’s the feeling in the changing room,” said Easterby. “Really pleased with a lot of aspects of the performance but we know we have to be better.”
World Cups are really just about winning, but Easterby said Ireland won’t waver from their in-built focus on performance as they now look to seal top spot in Pool B with a win over Scotland in two weekends’ time.
“I think that is important but we’re about performance. Yes, winning a World Cup, if you want to go all the way you have to win those types of games and you have to know how to win them.
“Maybe we made it tough for ourselves at times and we left a few points out there as well so we know that we didn’t have it all our own way and it certainly wasn’t anywhere near our perfect performance. But we found a way and that’s important as well.”
The Ireland squad broke up yesterday for a three-day holiday, with players and staff required to stay on French soil under World Cup rules. However, they will benefit from a breather from each other as they head to various destinations with family and friends.
When they reconvene in Tours later this week, it will be back to business with their feet firmly on the ground. The win over South Africa was just another pool victory, even if it does add to momentum behind this Ireland team, who have now won 16 games in a row.
“I think there’s probably now a good list of things that we’ve done over the last couple of seasons and that’s another one,” said Easterby.
“We’ve beaten South Africa in the World Cup for the first time, beaten the world champions. We did it in Dublin, but to beat them on neutral ground is something very special.
“There’s a few things that have gone on over the last couple of seasons that give the guys confidence and trust in what we’re doing.
“This is another stepping stone towards what we all want to try to achieve over the next couple of weeks and we’re genuinely feeling that we can get better and we need to get better as the competition goes on.”
What’s with publishing articles with comments off, then opening them a couple of hours later and then go behind a paywall shortly thereafter. It’s erratic and bizarre.
@ecrowley ecrowley: yeah, I’ve sort of given up commenting except the odd one, like this one, because I comment for the conversation, but now I can’t contribute to anything thereafter or read replies etc… I could pay the pay wall of course but I find it steep, I used to have it last year for a couple of months but didn’t feel, for me, I wanted to keep it going. I’m at the stage I am going to ditch a sub if picking up a new one.
What an unbelievable night in Paris!
Funnily we beat the world champions and yet they are the ones who have now all but qualified for the 1/4, yet we have make or break play off with Scotland…
So can’t get carried away even for an instant
@Bryan Fage: and outside of Ireland most media seems to have the Boks as favourites to win if we did meet them again in the final. They would sort out their kicking and look at their tactics a bit, but Ireland would also sort some issues out. I’d say it’s 50/50 if we meet them again.
Jumping the gun here but if we get past scotland and top the group it’s NZ in the quarters and most likely wales in the semi finals. It seriously is in our own hands.
@chris mcdonnell: Scotland will throw the kitchen sink at Ireland. I see a very tough game there… Would think Scotland will get 5 points against Romania then they need a bonus point win against Ireland (and deny Ireland any points at the same time) they are unlikely to beat Ireland but probably their only way to make it through the pool.. Can’t see SA not getting a 5 pointer against Tonga…
@chris mcdonnell: and Wales should be easier than Scotland, Christ on a bike, I need to take a cold bath.
@Stuart: Scotland do not need a bonus point against Ireland. Just a win denying Ireland a bonus point. The arithmetic is simple. If Scotland ‘throw the kitchen sink’ they’ll come unstuck, they have individuals but not the cohesion to make Ireland implode.
@Stuart: ya but ireland far better than scotland and will win easy
@Stuart: Lot of annoyed-looking forwards on the SA bench around the 50-minute mark, those lads aren’t used to being taken off so early, between that and the ‘traffic lights’ do you think it’s clear that it’s ‘Rassies’ show and everyone else gets to be involved, is there decention in the camp? (or was it all the ref’s fault as most SA pundits have it)
@Thesaltyurchin: ref was good expect that rediculous call at the end in that maul where your player was clearly off side.. Ball also came out” so ref should have let play on…. Other than that, boks didn’t kick to corners and use maul which is a great strength. Instead opted to kick penalties from our own half with no traditional goal kickers.. Maybe boks holding back tactics for later in the comp to not show full hand ??? Ireland serves the win.. Took your chances.. Good stuff
@Thesaltyurchin: if libbok starts game plan should be to kick to the corners, mail, score tries!!! Why didn’t the boks do that? Makes no sense… Somethings up…
@Stuart: Yea would agree with that, especially with the line-out being so terrible.
@Stuart: Tadhg Beirne entered through the maul, so he wasn’t offside. He changed his bind once, very quickly and took a millisecond, so you have to forgive the ref for missing that. The ball has to be available immediately once it collapses. It took almost 5 seconds. He even gave them a chance by checking both sides of the maul before awarding the turnover. It definitely seems as if SA did not play to their strengths… maybe they fancy the French in a QF rather than a final.
I thought it was a poor watch, lots of errors and largely attritional. However, it was intense and nerve wrecking.
I just like to see free flowing rugby as well as the physicality but possibly due to the SA approach.
We’ll beat Scotland but never write off New Zealand. The last team you want to play in a WC regardless of their inconsistent form.
Hoping we can go all the way!
This is likely the mentally strongest Ireland team I can remember. Self confident and relaxed, focused on themselves. Schmidt teams were great but couldn’t adapt off script, these guys can. Not engaging with SA mind games re 7/1 split being a case in point.
Could Scot win? yes but it’d be a shock. Ire have a significantly better pack. A world class attack and defence. A bench that adds value. A mental advantage over Scotland with results. A few world class individuals on their day, but as a collective….nowhere near.
@Dean Harper: I think SA were trying to break us mentally, first with the 7/1 split and taking over the pre-match narrative and then in the game, taking long kicks at the post, if they had worked, I am convinced the idea was to put the pressure on Ireland that said, “look you cannot even make a mistake in the middle of the field or we will gain from it”, trying to put the sh1! ts up us.
I dont want to be confident but we are going to win the world cup
@Sèan: Jesus rain it in, look at our history in WC best chances we’ve had were 91 & 11 & we blew them through lack of belief and overconfidence, this time could be different but don’t get ahead of ourselves !