The IRFU may be disconnected from a chunk of their audience on the price of Test rugby at Lansdowne Road but at least those who paid up can claim to have witnessed a truly crazy event.
In the 2013 Six Nations in Rome Ireland had their backline sundered by a freakish run of injuries, leaving holes being filled by men who didn’t know how to hold a shovel. But here, on a perfect night for rugby and with a game promising to develop into a gripping contest, we saw four players banished for crimes and misdemeanours in the first half alone. Mad stuff, at the end of which – after well over two exhausting hours – the world champions stumbled to a win that should have been managed with half the effort.
“I’d say it was chaotic,” Andy Farrell said. “I haven’t seen a game like that ever. First and foremost you look at ourselves and why things happened but my overriding reaction is that I’m incredibly proud. If you can’t learn from that then you’re in the wrong place really.”
The passage to the overflowing sin-bin was halted only by the half-time whistle, at which point the referee, Matt Carley, was booed off the field with a venom you don’t often see. Their sense of injustice kicked off with the decision not to card Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for a dangerous tackle on Tommy O’Brien. Both Farrell and his captain Caelan Doris felt a card should have been shown.
So South Africa took with them a 19-7 lead and the knowledge they would be starting the second half against 12 men, albeit not for long. Ireland meantime were down the corridor with Farrell wondering what pieces he could move around a very bare-looking chessboard.
The coach had seen James Ryan go first, on a yellow card escalated to red for a no-arms clean out on Malcolm Marx. The traffic became turbo charged in the last eight minutes of the half with Sam Prendergast, replacement Jack Crowley and then Andrew Porter all going off for a variety of offences.
It was only in that bizarre passage that the Boks actually got to grips with turning their pronounced dominance at the scrum to something material on the scoreboard. They looked less confused when playing against 15 men, putting Damian Willemse over for a try inside four minutes. That said, they looked happy enough early in the second half when Sam Prendergast was back on the field to kick a penalty, only for his brother Cian to spill the restart. With yet another scrum penalty advantage to play with Feinberg-Mngomezulu, a serious athlete with a surfeit of skill, fended Jamison Gibson-Park en route to the line. That put the Boks 24-10 ahead, and looking safe.
Not so safe that they could order-in and open a bottle of red, but given they had the combination to the penalty safe there was no secure route Ireland could take in pursuit, despite their battling qualities, which Farrell described as: “Absolutely amazing. I think the crowd recognised that and supported them for it. To be able to win the second half 6-5 in those sorts of circumstances was fantastic and that doesn’t tell the whole story of the second half. ” Consider that in a six-minute spell in the second quarter South Africa put Ireland on the rack, twisting seven penalties from the home side with the scrum the primary source. And that was before the hemorrhage of home players started.
Even so, South Africa spent the last few minutes frantically defending their own line, with the slim comfort of a two-score lead, which they held until Carley blew for the last time, kicking off another chorus of boos.
Ireland Hansen (Farrell 65); O’Brien (HIA Crowley 32), Ringrose (Gibson-Park 75), Aki, Lowe; Prendergast, Gibson-Park (Casey 66); Porter (McCarthy 73), Sheehan (Kelleher 56), Furlong (Bealham 60), Ryan (C Prendergast 40), Beirne, Baird (Conan 60), Van der Flier (McCarthy 42; Porter 50; McCarthy 60; Porter 63), Doris (capt). Red card Ryan 21. Yellow card Prendergast 34, Crowley 40, Porter 42, McCarthy 63. Try Sheehan. Pens Prendergast 2. Con Crowley 1.
South Africa Willemse; Moodie, Kriel, De Allende, Kolbe; S Feinberg-Mngomezulu (Libbok 59) C Reinach (Williams 69); B Venter, (Steenekamp 42), M Marx (Grobbelaar 66; Marx 73), T du Toit (Louw 42; Du Toit 73), E Etzebeth (Snyman 50), R Nortje, S Kolisi (Esterhuizen 59), P-S du Toit, J Wiese (Smith 54). Yellow card Williams 79. Tries Willemse, penalty try, Reinach, Feinberg-Mngomezulu. Con Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Referee Matthew Carley (Eng).
The Boks looked relieved, but that will last only until the review: how could a team so dominant at set–piece, and with a decent all-court game to match, end up in hand to hand combat to get over the finish line. To their credit they sailed close to the wind in keeping Ireland out, and ironically ended up a man short when Grant Williams was binned with a minute left. They will look forward to their holidays.
