Ireland 25; South Africa 24
If you were expecting a try-fest, you would have been disappointed but otherwise this amazing battle of attrition and big hits lived up to its billing as the two top teams in the world slugged it out to the finish like two bare-knuckled fighters in Durban on Saturday.
The statistic of one try among the two sides — from Ireland’s Conor Murray — with the rest kicks doesn't make it look like an appetizing contest. But nothing could be further from the truth.
This was a Test in name but a championship decider in reality as the hosts wanted to make it back-to-back victories while the tourists were hell bent on ensuring they flew home this week with their heads held high following a victory.
Ciaran Frawley’s two drop goals, the second of which showed great bravery as it was from far out and won the match, will long be talked about, similar to our memory of Johnny Sexton’s brilliant kick at the death to win a Five Nations game against France in Paris five years ago.
Long after we will forget that Handres Pollard kicked eight penalties for the Springboks and Jack Crowley kicked four plus a conversion for Ireland, those two drop goals will live in the memory of Ireland sports fans.
Ireland Head Coach Andy Farrell summed it up perfectly when he said: “It was the sublime to the ridiculous, wasn't it? It was a complete reversal of last week.”
Ireland set out their stall from the start by playing a furious brand of collision rugby that even that the past masters of this rugby, the South Africans, gasping for breath.
Murray’s early try and Crowley’s boot had us in a comfortable 16-6 lead at the half-time whistle with the only thing to fear the fact that we were not competing as equals in the scrums, which led to three penalties awarded against us.
Obviously that point was picked up in the home dressing-room because when the ‘Boks began in the second-half, they blew us away with their power and soon Pollard took advantage of his packs power to nose them 18-16 in front midway through the second period.
The question was put up to the Ireland players - can you respond to what the current double World Cup winners are asking? Not too many would have said “yes” but the Ireland players are made of sterner stuff and with replacements such as Frawley, Ryan Baird and Peter O’Mahony adding wisdom and heft, Ireland turned the corner and began exerting their own pressure.
South Africa cussedness had seen them leading 24-19 and it looked enough until Frawley's drop goal heroics changed the whole complexion and outcome of the encounter..
Explained Farrell, who admitted giving his side a rollicking after last week’s poor showing the first half: “Our first-half performance was not too great last week; this week, I thought it was outstanding, as good as it gets. Our second half last week was good, this week we’ve made enough mistakes to lose three games in that second half. But you just know when you’re hanging in there that there’s always going to be a chance with this team because of the guts, the bravery they’ve got and they showed that in spades.”
Referring to Frawley’s bravery he explained: “He had the guts in the first place to score the first drop goal and I thought it was immense how he had the courage to take it early, so fair play to him.”
The Head Coach also had great praise for his skipper Caelan Doris: “He had a magnificent game. He was outstanding throughout, like he was last week. He’s in great form. He ran so hard on one of the collisions, he got absolutely smashed but he got up and went again and again and again, and that’s proper leadership.
“When your captain is doing that, others tend to follow," Farrell said.
Ireland: J Osborne; C Nash, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Lowe; J Crowley, C Murray; A Porter, R Kelleher, T Furlong, J McCarthy, J Ryan; T Beirne, J van der Flier, C Doris (capt) Replacements: R Herring (for Kelleher, 65), C Healy (for Porter, 56), F Bealham (for Furlong, 44), R Baird (for Ryan, 56), P O'Mahony (for Van der Flier, 56), C Blade (for Murray, 59), C Frawley (for Crowley, 59), S McCloskey (for Nash, 61)
