Ireland tumble down mountain after approaching historic heights

South Africa 32 Ireland 26

This will hurt for a couple of days alright, the problem being – for how much longer after that? To have played so well for a half, and to be seemingly in such control after an hour, only made what happened in the final quarter all the more crushing.

The mood swings in the colourful Ellis Park, which looked about 10,000 shy of its 56,000 capacity, reflected the plot as it unfolded. They bellowed out Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika, chanted ‘ole, ole, ole’ upon the start and roared with expectancy when the Springboks briefly sparked into early life. But as the half progressed, they even stopped booing when Paddy Jackson lined up another three-pointer and by half-time they had resorted to derisorily booing their own team off the pitch.

Upon the restart, helped by the introduction of four more Golden Lions players, they roused themselves and the Springboks in their desperation. When the Boks finally found their straps, the crowd rode along joyously on the crest of an unanswered 22-point haul amid a raucous din.

That era is gone

Had the two starting teams remained on the pitch for the duration, it’s conceivable that Ireland would have held on. But that era is gone, and this game was swung in large part by the Boks’ bench and the negligible impact of a relatively unused Irish one.

After a misleadingly ominous first Boks scrum and three-pointer from half-way by Elton Jantjies, the scrum grew in strength; vindicating the selections of Tadhg Furlong, on his first start, and Quinn Roux for his debut. Similarly, the Irish lineout was typically well-oiled save for one costly late blight, which Joe Schmidt attributed to a wrong call but also looked like an underthrow by Richardt Strauss and was helped by the Boks illegally stepping across.

Cometh the hour

The Irish maul, defensively and offensively, delivered handsomely too, stopping the Boks in its tracks in the first half and then, cometh the hour mark, restoring Ireland’s 16-point lead. Helped by the characteristic excellence of their clearing out, Ireland looked so secure against an increasingly hapless Springboks.

Tactically, Ireland also clearly targeted the Boks’ left winger Lwazi Mvovo in the air. This effectively yielded Ireland’s other seven-pointer when Andrew Trimble adroitly kept the ball in play from Mvovo’s spillage and then effected a wonderful clear-out for the outstanding Rhys Ruddock to take Conor Murray’s feed, pivot and offload for Devin Toner to score.

Targetting the Boks left-hand corner also made it more difficult for them to exit, given the presence of three left-footers at nine, 10 and 15.

Paddy Jackson kept the scoreboard ticking with some sweet strikes, the only pity being that he narrowly missed a tricky 45-metre penalty from the left and from 55 metres (when he comfortably had the altitude-assisted range) either side of the interval.

True, Ireland didn’t create an awful lot, relying on the above to keep a tight rein on their hosts. And for an hour it seemed to be working fine.

Defensively sound as a pound, Ireland were even more effective in the tackle than in Cape Town, and the manner in which Roux, Iain Henderson and Rory Best knocked the ball from the grasp of the Springboks carriers further demonstrated how the players have targeted the ball in the tackle under the tutelage of Andy Farrell.

However, as even Schmidt admitted: “Even in that first 10 after half-time, to be honest we weren’t great. They lost the ball forward in the 22, and we scrambled it out. They were starting to put a little bit of pressure on us and we were just hanging in. We sort of needed to get a foothold.”

Farewell act

That appeared to be the case with Tadhg Furlong in his farewell act charging down Faf de Klerk’s box-kick (again after Jackson had steered his restart to the Boks’ left corner), with Jamie Heaslip scoring off the ensuing well-worked maul.

But the tide had started to turn on foot of Ireland going into their shells and kicking downfield; Willie le Roux countering to put Ruan Combrinck over. Whereupon, the Boks roused themselves, made their passes stick and came at Ireland in waves of hard, straight running and using the full width of the pitch, Combrinck’s interval arrival for Mvovo and JP Pietersen’s shift to the left giving them a new-found potency on both flanks.

Dependable

Clearly, a combination of fatigue and altitude kicked in. How else to explain the manner in which Ireland’s line speed decreased to the point where they were just absorbing? Soon they could no longer achieve that much with even the dependable Conor Murray, Andrew Trimble, Ruddock and Jackson began falling off tackles.

Whereas the Boks had five local Lions players on the pitch for the second-half and played the last 12 minutes with seven of those who play regularly at altitude, Ireland had only replenished their tight five before the final three minutes, save for Sean Reidy temporarily replacing Ruddock as a blood replacement.

Given altitude was always liable to be a factor, it’s a surprise that Ireland didn’t have more a strategy to use their bench.

Scoring sequence: 4 mins Jantjies pen 3-0; 11 mins Jackson pen 3-3; 15 mins Jackson pen 3-6; 23 mins Jackson pen 3-9; 28 mins Jackson pen 3-12; 34 mins Toner try, Jackson con 3-19; (half-time 3-19); 57 mins Combrinck try, Jantjies con 10-19; 60 mins Heaslip try, Jackson con 10-26; 64 mins Whiteley try 15-26; 70 mins du Toit try, Jantjies con 22-26; 76 mins de Allende try, Jantjies con 29-26; 80 mins Jantjies pen 32-26.

SOUTH AFRICA: Willie le Roux (Cell C Sharks); JP Pietersen (Cell C Sharks), Lionel Mapoe (Emirates Lions), Damian de Allende (DHL Stormers), Lwazi Mvovo (Cell C Sharks); Elton Jantjies (Emirates Lions), Faf de Klerk (Emirates Lions); Tendai Mtawarira (Cell C Sharks), Adriaan Strauss (Vodacom Bulls) (capt), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Eben Etzebeth (DHL Stormers), Pieter-Steph du Toit (DHL Stormers), Francois Louw (Bath), Siya Kolisi (DHL Stormers), Duane Vermeulen (Toulon).

Replacements: Warren Whiteley (Emirates Lions) for Vermeulen, Ruan Combrinck (Emirates Lions) for Mvovo (both half-time), Julian Redelinghuys (Emirates Lions) for Malherbe (47 mins), Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls) for Mtawarira (52 mins), Franco Mostert (Emirates Lions) for Kolisi (68 mins), Morne Steyn (Stade Francais) for Jantjies (60-63 mins). Not used: Bongi Mbonambi (DHL Stormers), Rudy Paige (Vodacom Bulls). I

RELAND: Jared Payne (Ulster); Andrew Trimble (Ulster), Robbie Henshaw (Connacht), Stuart Olding (Ulster), Craig Gilroy (Ulster); Paddy Jackson (Ulster), Conor Murray (Munster); Jack McGrath (Leinster), Rory Best (Ulster) (capt), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster), Devin Toner (Leinster), Quinn Roux (Connacht), Iain Henderson (Ulster), Rhys Ruddock (Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Leinster).

Replacements: Sean Reidy (Ulster) for Ruddock (43-50 mins), Donnacha Ryan (Munster) for Roux (50 mins), Finlay Bealham (Connacht) for Furlong (60 mins), Richardt Strauss (Leinster) for Best, Dave Kilcoyne (Munster) for McGrath (both 67 mins), Ian Madigan (Leinster) for Henshaw, Tiernan O'Halloran (Connacht) for Payne (both 77 mins), Kieran Marmion (Connacht) for Murray (78 mins).

Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)