The build-up to the game against South Africa and the 80 minutes at the Aviva Stadium offered a microcosm of sporting theatre in Ireland and how, as a nation, we embrace it wholeheartedly. It also offered a glimpse into the ecosystem of Irish rugby, both its potential and its limitations.
Given the modest numbers that play the sport relative to GAA and soccer in Ireland, rugby’s strike-rate in terms of developing high quality Test match players is impressive, never mind producing a generational player such as Johnny Sexton, acknowledged as one of the world’s best.
The billing for last Saturday’s game, the world number one side against the world champions, whetted the appetite but as is often the case the match didn’t quite live up to the poster. While it wasn’t a classic in pure rugby terms, it was riveting, the brutal collisions turning it into a gladiatorial spectacle. The tension was palpable with the outcome up for grabs until the final whistle.
Trying to consider the implications of the result in the context of next year’s World Cup in France, when Ireland will meet the Springboks in a pool match, is long on conjecture given that there are probably 11 more Test matches to play between now and the start of the global tournament.
There are so many intangibles in terms of form and injuries that making any long-range predictions is a fool’s errand at this point. What can be said is that Ireland generally pays a heavy toll from an injury perspective when faced with physically bigger teams. The physical effort to get over the line at the weekend cost Andy Farrell’s team Stuart McCloskey, Conor Murray, and Tadhg Furlong, while Johnny Sexton sported a heavily strapped leg.
There were echoes of the 2015 World Cup when Ireland beat France but, in the process, lost Sexton, Paul O’Connell and Peter O’Mahony to injury, the team a shadow of their former selves the following week, in succumbing to Argentina.
[ Ireland vs South Africa: How the Irish players ratedOpens in new window ]
The fixture schedule next year will see Andy Farrell’s team play the Springboks in the third pool match, Scotland in the final one and if they progress either New Zealand or France in a quarter final. The race is on to ensure that the quality runs deep when the squad for the tournament is announced.
Part of that exercise continues next Saturday with the game against Fiji. Ideally Farrell would prefer not to have to call upon Tadhg Beirne, James Ryan, Garry Ringrose, and Andrew Porter to highlight a few, to play three games in succession with the Wallabies in town the following weekend.
In a pragmatic way it would be great to make wholesale changes and still retain high performance virtues and values but as Ireland A’s defeat at the RDS on Friday night showed, some of the aspiring Test players still have a way to go to bridge the gap to the standard required.
There is also the matter of having respect for Fiji, who are a good side, as they demonstrated when pushing Ireland to the brink the last time they were in Dublin.
The intensity and physicality that the Springboks brought at the start of the game took me aback. I was commentating for talkSPORT, and the producer asked me “if I missed matches like this”. The legacy ache in my shoulder following 10 operations reminded me to be honest.
Ireland will not be afforded the same latitude from the first choice Bok halfbacks, nor can they hope to absorb that attrition indefinitely and survive next time
I had huge sympathy for Stuart McCloskey, who had to bide his time, called in to train and then going home when the match day squads were announced. Given an opportunity through Robbie Henshaw’s injury and Bundee Aki’s suspension, he started the game superbly in opposition to one of the game’s best centres in Damian de Allende, carrying strongly and making nine tackles in 25 minutes before being forced off with a freak arm injury.
He has shown his mental resilience to cope with disappointment and my hope is that he gets another opportunity at this level – he may be fit for the Fiji game, but it is not the same as playing against a marquee team like South Africa when you are trying to make the plane to France. He has done all that the coaches challenged him to deliver.
Ireland had to absorb plenty of Springbok pressure but when the home side did get the ball, South Africa went all-in with a high defensive line. Ireland struggled to deal with this in the absence of crisper passing that would have enabled them to get outside the defensive press.
Defences have obviously been studying Ireland’s attacking alignment, a diamond shape with an outside back sitting in behind, and then another diamond formation outside again. South Africa zoned in on the outside back behind the second diamond formation.
This left a huge amount of space in the wider channel which Sexton went after twice. One was inches away from giving Hugo Keenan a two-on-one, and the second came to nothing when Robert Baloucoune didn’t anticipate the floated pass.
[ Ireland stand tall in the battle of wills to edge South Africa in thunderous TestOpens in new window ]
South Africa also managed to slow down Irish ruck ball in the first half, their backrow attacking most rucks where the ball was available but not delivered. Murray had a good half-hour, but he needs to fully embrace that higher tempo ruck, caught on occasion at the sharp side of the counter-ruck.
The tempo that Jamison Gibson-Park brought directly contributed to Ireland’s two tries. His decision-making gives Ireland’s more variety, using the short-side, that fast delivery when playmakers are in place, or lifting the ball and moving it away from the breakdown.
He provided a lovely reverse flick pass to put Mack Hansen through a gap and then waited patiently to expose the dog-leg in the Springbok defence, ghosting between defenders, in a pivotal move that culminated in Hansen’s try.
There is little doubt that he used his time on the bench before coming on for Murray to study what the South Africans were doing in defence and as a result knew where to find the areas in which he might be able to stress their alignment or find holes.
He understood where the space was on the pitch and there were several moments when it was his choice of option that gave Ireland’s attack a sharper definition. The Irish halfbacks completely eclipsed their counterparts.
Look at the clarity of purpose following Sexton’s chat with James Ryan about kicking a penalty to the corner in the build-up to the Josh van der Flier try; captain and pack leader in harmony, one backing up the other.
Both Jaden Hendrikse and Damian Willemse struggled to make an impact, with the latter alternating as first receiver with Cheslin Kolbe; it did neither any favours in terms of influencing the game in a positive manner. When Faf de Klerk and Willie le Roux were introduced, the Springboks were immediately more cohesive in attack.
My gut feeling is that Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber had one eye on the World Cup and would have extracted enough from the game to use against us next September.
There were lessons there too for Ireland, a primary one that inaccuracy in possession extracts a significant physical tariff.
The Springboks are happy to thresh their way forward through direct carrying, using the physique and power of the pack. Ireland will need to limit their exposure to this sort of ordeal. In a quick ruck, high-skill game that stretches us to our limits the rewards are clear, but any material drop-off in this facet of the game and Ireland will struggle.
Ireland will not be afforded the same latitude from the first choice Bok halfbacks, nor can they hope to absorb that attrition indefinitely and survive next time.
We are unlikely to learn much this week against Fiji other than where players sit in the pecking order, as there are likely to be changes needed in advance of the Australian encounter.
What our starting tight five turns out to be will indicate how much depth and trust we have across certain positions. Furlong will be fit for Australia. It’s time to look at backup options again at the weekend. The penalties won at scrum time after Furlong’s departure seemed a little generous.
The priorities against Fiji are to win and afford Test match game time to those who can genuinely put up their hand to be in the selection mix for the game against the Wallabies. The priority for Farrell and the squad is to ensure that Ireland keep evolving, keep going forward in terms of the way they play the game.
Saturday demonstrated that they can win tough matches, and that victory should be celebrated, but professional sport invariably demands that the focus during a season is firmly trained on what lies ahead.
