Ireland v South Africa: Tadhg Beirne delivers another epic shift in a battle of inches

When it had finished and the players made their way around the Stade de France and into the bosom of their family and friends who occupied a pitchside corner of seats by the tunnel, the intensity of Ireland v South Africa had still not stopped pumping out waves of energy.

Nerves shredded, emotions still dissipating in the stands, triumphant, with their socks rolled down and scrumcaps off, the players knew they had delivered a match that had inflated in size as each second and minute counted down, where every tackle was felt around the stadium and where each collision and touch of the ball was consequential. Still, it boiled down to a matter of inches.

With the coming together of such brutality and physical challenge, resourcefulness and courage kicked in. There was no overpowering, no team was skittled by the other. In the end the concussive pileups and body slams were shared by every one in the swath of Irish fans as the game teetered and for most of the time failed to indicate which way it would fall until the final South African lineout maul.

[ Ireland v South Africa: Five things we learned from Irish side's 13-8 win ]

It was a battle of wills and personality, as it often is when matches take on their own identity and are able to fire a Rugby World Cup into life.

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“Momentum is a huge thing. You can feel it if the crowd gets on top of you,” said Tadhg Beirne. “Today we were lucky, out of 80,000 we probably had 70,000 Irish fans there, so they were backing us and when it goes with you, the crowd gives you a lift to pounce on that. There are moments in games when the momentum shifts.

“But we’ve trained for all that stuff. We’ve spoke about all that stuff and when momentum shifts there are going to be moments that go against you. It’s about trying to turn that back around and get back to what we’re good at, back to what we do, that’s what will turn a game.”

Beirne was one of those who wearily made his way around and across the pitch. Another 80 minutes, his contribution so far has been three shifts of full matches. Against Romania he scored two tries, the second one after 83 minutes when he ran the length of the pitch to see it through.

For that game he played blindside flanker before going back to lock against Tonga. Again, he played for 80 minutes and again he scored a try in Ireland’s 59-16 win. On Saturday there was no try but Beirne put in his third 80 minute shift against a Springbok bomb squad specifically designed to literally run players like him into the ground.

“I don’t know if I’m going to play (80) going into a game,” he says. “But certainly, I feel fit enough to do it. I’m ready to do it, as I’m sure are James Ryan or Iain Henderson. They want to play 80 minutes. You want to be out there. You want to be in the heat of the battle. It gets tiring, for sure, but I feel fit, which is great, and if I can keep doing 80 minutes I’ll keep putting my hand up to do 80 minutes.”

Beirne is currently tied with Johnny Sexton at third in the competition for tries scored, Bundee Aki is in second place with four behind England’s five-try Henry Arundell. On the Irish team he is second only to Caelan Doris in tackling with 26. However, it’s not always about numbers but mindset, specific acts of selflessness and setting standards.

The must make tackle, the odd turnover to earn players a break and territory, messing up the Springboks at ruck time, especially in the second half when the tide had begun to swing against Ireland. In St Denis, Beirne covered the bases. It’s all good. But it’s never enough.

“You know in the second half we probably didn’t get going,” he says. “We didn’t get an opportunity to attack, again, like we said, the lineout at the start of the first half, like if we had taken a few of those lineouts maybe it would have been a different scoreline. But we’ll look at that, and we’ll look at where we can improve it and it’s all about taking a step forward. There were a lot of opportunities left out there. You could feel it, so it’s still very exciting for us.

“Look, the next few days are huge. We have them off. But it’s not like we’re going drinking beer for three days, you know. We’re going to enjoy some time with our families, our partners. You’re away for a very, very long time and just to get that time is huge. We might go out for a few meals but, overall, it’s mainly about recovery and focus will go to Scotland come Wednesday when we meet back up.”

Scotland in Paris in two weeks’ time and perhaps a quarterfinal against New Zealand or France. Heads will begin to turn towards Gregor Townsend and what the mercurial Finn Russel might bring. But the ‘Boks are not going away. Their beating was the beginning of this World Cup for Ireland as well as a benchmark.

“They are going to grow as the competition goes on,” says Beirne. “I’ve no doubt. We’ll probably meet them again.”

Head on, the only way he knows.