Irish eyes are tiring after a year of rugby, but if they keep them open wide enough for 80 minutes in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, they will witness history being made. Not only have Ireland never won a series in South Africa, but no European country has achieved the feat in the professional era.
The sides are level in the series at 1-1 after Ireland’s victory with 14 men in the opening international at Cape Town was wiped out in Johannesburg the following week when the Springboks rallied in the second half after trailing 19-3.
Altitude was a factor last week, but it will not be in Port Elizabeth where player fatigue is the main concern of the Ireland head coach, Joe Schmidt, who after losing the outside-half Jonathan Sexton through injury before the tour will be without two more backs, Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne, for Saturday’s decider.
England may not have beaten South Africa since 2006, but Ireland have won five of their last eight internationals against the Springboks, including their first outside Dublin. Schmidt has urged his players, who gathered 12 months ago to begin preparations for the World Cup, to give everything in one final push.
He said: “I am utterly confident the players will make me and themselves proud. Yes, it’s been a long season, people are tired and that’s going to maybe detract from people being at their optimum but, at the same time, I don’t think too many people will detect that because what they don’t have in fresh reserves of energy, they’ll make up for it with the full commitment they make to doing the job that they do.”
Schmidt has made seven changes, one positional, for the final Test, with Tiernan O’Halloran making his first start as Payne’s replacement at full-back. “One of the things that we wanted to do was to involve as many players as possible on tour,” said the coach. “It means that everybody will have been in a match-day 23 and I have no doubt that the attitude of the players will be the same as it was in the first two games.”
While defeat would still leave Schmidt in credit given Ireland’s performances in the first two Tests, it would have considerably different implications for his South Africa counterpart, Allister Coetzee, who is in charge of his first series since replacing Heyneke Meyer.
“We had impact from the bench last week, but I want to see that from the start this weekend,” he said. “We need to play with physical intensity from the word go and we have to start far better than we did in Johannesburg, giving us the platform to up the ante in the final stanza. The players must know their roles and contribute.”
The South Africa captain, Adriaan Strauss, said that one reason for the closeness of the series was that the Springboks were a new team that had only been together for a few weeks, in contrast to Ireland’s far more settled and tried unit.
“Our tactical game needs a bit of work and we were never going to be a well-moulded side after a few weeks,” he added. “There is pressure on us this weekend, but it is something we need to embrace. I feel more excitement than nerves ahead of what is a must-win game.”
France are the only European nation to have won a series in South Africa, repeating their 1958 success in 1993, but Ireland know what it takes to overcome the Springboks and if minds and bodies are able to sustain one final shove at the end of what must feel like the longest year, a piece of history can be theirs.
