THE RUGBY SEASON is too long, and yet it feels criminal we don’t have a decisive third Test to look forward to between Ireland and the Springboks next weekend.
This two-game series always threatened to be a step too far for this Irish side, who have been on the go since their opening World Cup warm-up game against Italy on 5 August of last year.
Initially, it had looked like those fears were well-founded. Ireland were sluggish in the opening half against the Springboks last weekend and as today’s ferocious second Test rumbled along, the visitors started to look sapped of energy as 12 draining months of action took their toll.
Andy Farrell’s side were brilliant in the first half in Durban and fully deserved their 10-point lead at half-time after taking a notably physical approach to the battle, but the third quarter felt like death by a thousand paper cuts. As Ireland’s energy slipped so too did their discipline, with the commanding Handré Pollard slotting four successive penalties to drag his team from a losing position to a point clear.
It all felt gut-wrenchingly familiar. This it what the Boks do. Ride the punches, hang on in there, break your heart.
But then a gripping Test match moved into another realm.
As the clock ticked towards 80 and the end of Ireland’s season, this didn’t look like the team Farrell had led through the last two years.
Jamison Gibson-Park and Mack Hansen – two of the most influential figures across Farrell’s tenure – hadn’t been able to travel to South Africa, while Hugo Keenan is off chasing his Olympic dream. Dan Sheehan, Bundee Aki and Craig Casey were reduced to watching briefs after that attritional first Test in Pretoria. Farrell’s captain, Peter O’Mahony, had started on the bench after failing to make the desired impact seven days ago. Throw in the retirements of Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls, and that’s a fair turnover from the preferred 23 who stormed into last year’s World Cup.
There had been some change across the Six Nations, with Joe McCarthy and Calvin Nash both making strong impressions on their first runs in the starting team, but now circumstances had pushed Farrell to move things on again, and the players were stepping up.
Jamie Osborne was bossing the skies at fullback on just his second Test start. Caolin Blade was at scrum-half, winning his first cap since August of last year. Alongside him at out-half was Ciarán Frawley, a player who still hasn’t found one position to call his own. In the season just gone Frawley started just two games at out-half for Leinster, yet here he was looking to steer Ireland over the line in the home of the back-to-back World Champions.
It was a big ask for a player winning just his sixth Test cap, yet across a thrilling finale the Skerries man put his mark on one of the great Ireland away victories.
Heading into the final 10 minutes Ireland trailed by five but it was Frawley who turned a potentially killer-moment into a glimmer of hope. Having just watched his teammates get held up over the South Africa line, from the resulting goal-line drop-out Frawley drained a monster drop-goal to pull his team within two points.
There was still a chance, and somehow, Ireland summoned one final push to end their long, gruelling season on a high.
After putting too much heat on a crossfield kick, Frawley recovered by teasing through a grubber that had James Lowe scampering down the wing, before Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu bundled into touch.
As Ireland set themselves to throw one last punch, the TV cameras caught Frawley signalling to his teammates for the drop goal. It was a pressure moment coming at the end of an error-strewn second half, but it was one the Leinster player was ready to embrace.
What followed was the type of moment that can define a career. No matter where Frawley goes from here and how many caps he wins, he’ll always be the player who won it for Ireland in South Africa. In case anyone needs reminding, that’s only been achieved twice in Ireland’s history.
And this is where the importance of this Test series comes into the equation. If a more familiar Ireland side had gone through these two Tests, win or lose, the value of the tour could be questioned. With the way things played out, Farrell will travel home having learned some valuable information about his team.
Osborne is a strong option at fullback, a position that previously looked a little light on cover during Hugo Keenan’s stranglehold on the jersey. Frawley is a Test player at the highest level and James Ryan might again break up the first-choice lock pairing of McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne, who were both superb today. Caelan Doris, who delivered two monster shifts over the two Tests, is ready to be Ireland’s next captain while Conor Murray’s detractors will find their argument a little more difficult over the coming months.
Most importantly, this is an Ireland team that are never dead. The World Cup was a gut-punch and Ireland fell over the line to win this year’s Six Nations, but away from home, in the belly of the beast and with the beach in sight, Farrell’s Ireland found a way to seize control of a contest that had been sliding out of their reach.
Bring on next season.
