The IRISH RUGBY thread

[screenexile]

We just beat the Springbooks. . . Phenomenal!!!!

[muppet]

Great win. Did not see that coming.

[Captain Obvious]

A famous victory well done to the Irish.

[Tony Baloney]

We just beat the Springbooks. . . Phenomenal!!!!

You beat nobody from the sofa  .
Can't imagine the bookies took much money on an Ireland win.

[seafoid]

A great win after the heartbreak of losing in the last minute to the allblacks last year.
Very impressive.

[Bord na Mona man]

Was suprised to hear so much consensus in the build up that Ireland hadn't got a prayer. South Africa aren't as bloody minded about winning all around them in friendly tours like this, unlike New Zealand.

Good start from the new centres. Whisper it, but perhaps a flyweight centre partnership of O'Driscoll and Darcy was becoming an anachronism in the current game. Henshaw and Payne were solid and well able to cope with the toughness of the South Africans.

[seafoid]

It's nice to read a report like this


http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/nov/08/ireland-south-africa-autumn-international-match-report

South Africa head for England and Twickenham next Saturday losers of the first game of their autumn tour and hardly looking like the side many fancy for the world cup in 11 months' time after being left utterly confused by Irish passion and the clinical boot of Jonny Sexton.

After the scrappiest of first halves, and an early Irish try 90 seconds into the second, the Springboks finally woke up after 56 minutes, their physical forwards taking control to drive flanker Marcell Coetzee over from a line out.

With the conversion that pulled the Irish lead back to three points, but until then it had been a trio of unlikely heroes who had taken the game by the scruff. Jared Payne and Robbie Henshaw, starting in the centre for the first time in the absence of Brian O'Driscoll (retired) and Gordon D'Arcy, still unfit after a calf injury, manufactured the pressure that South Africa's full-back Willie le Roux could not handle, then Rhys Ruddock, a last-minute replacement burst over.

However, the knockout blow came eight minutes from time when Tommy Bowe, back in the Test arena for the first time since last season's championship-winning Six Nations, was first to a clever box kick from the scrum-half Conor Murray.

Ireland could easily have looked what they were, a side who had not played together since June, whereas South Africa had beaten Australia, Wales, Argentina, Scotland and the team ranked No1 in the world, New Zealand, since then. That victory over the All Blacks was just over a month ago, but their coach, Heyneke Meyer, has pulled so many strings that his players have been in camp virtually non-stop since August while Joe Schmidt has had to do his best with 26 days. It should have showed.

Instead Ireland scrapped for everything. The hooker Sean Cronin was everywhere until the legs went, while the back row did what they do best at every breakdown. With Cian Healy and Rory Best missing up front and Chris Henry, the Ulster open-side, pulling out before kick-off with a virus, things could have been particularly difficult at the set piece, but the scrum just about survived under massive pressure and the normally peerless Springbok lineout was occasionally guilty of shooting itself in the foot.

This time last year the Irish scared the daylights out of the All Blacks, but even when Meyer turned to the insurance of a replacements' bench that boasted 316 caps between them, Ireland kept their noses ahead. Two second-half Sexton penalties extended the three-point lead and then Bowe delivered the knockout to a side already down to 14 men with the replacement prop Adriaan Strauss in the sin-bin.

Eleven months and eight games out from the next world cup it was not a convincing performance by a side so fancied by the bookies. Not even a try by the replacement wing JP Pietersen could add any gloss.

Not that the opening was without a few jangling nerves as Sexton first landed high balls on the wing Bryan Habana and then Le Roux. The fly-half also made sure Henshaw got into the game early, the Connacht man launched like a battering ram, before the boot was back in play, sliding the ball into the path of Bowe.

It was an adventurous ten minutes when Paul O'Connell was even confident enough in his own scrum to turn down a free-kick and it earned the first points of the night when Jannie du Plessis crumbled.

In the past South Africa might have responded with the juggernaut pack. Instead Dublin became the first ground in the northern hemisphere to see what the new boy Handré Pollard has added to the Springboks, the fly-half twice opening things up before Sexton was back centre stage with an old-fashioned foot rush to relieve the pressure that the South Africa backs had been building.

Robert Kearney also had his say, breaking through a thicket of Springbok shirts to set up the penalty – Jan Serfontein punished for not releasing – that Sexton landed from wide out to push the score to 6-0.

It was all very uplifting for the sell-out crowd, but after 25 minutes the Springbok pack got serious for the first time, winning a scrum penalty then driving the resultant lineout before a fumble let them down. A second scrum was also an Irish mess, but again the Boks let themselves down and the Aviva let out a cheer of relief.

Another followed when midfield passes started going astray and another when Victor Matfield won perfectly good lineout ball, only to see it lost under of sea of scrapping bodies. Would Irish luck and Springbok philanthropy last? Well, two minutes before half-time Pollard finally decided to accept a penalty shot, but the first 40 ended much as it started, with South Africa fumbling the final play.

In fact they were made to pay only 90 seconds after the restart, Le Roux failing to deal with Henshaw's kick and Payne's rush.

Ireland dominated the resulting line out, Devin Toner rising above everyone else and when the drive was put on, Rhys Ruddock, son of the former Wales coach Mike Ruddock, burst through. Sexton's conversion made it 13-3 and Springbok backs were to the wall.

[Milltown Row2]

We just beat the Springbooks. . . Phenomenal!!!!

You beat nobody from the sofa  .
Can't imagine the bookies took much money on an Ireland win.

i backed them along with chelsea... Cha ching

[tiempo]

Was suprised to hear so much consensus in the build up that Ireland hadn't got a prayer. South Africa aren't as bloody minded about winning all around them in friendly tours like this, unlike New Zealand.

Good start from the new centres. Whisper it, but perhaps a flyweight centre partnership of O'Driscoll and Darcy was becoming an anachronism in the current game. Henshaw and Payne were solid and well able to cope with the toughness of the South Africans.

Agree with this, SA did things today that they wud never do in a WC and wudnt have done a month ago v NZ e.g. playing loose when well and truely in the game. Well done Ireland, lets not get ahead of ourselves, that said, we are a damn good team and can pose a genuine threat at WC 2015 imo

[Capt Pat]

It was reassuring to see the team still performing in the post Brian O'Driscoll era.

[muppet]

It was reassuring to see the team still performing in the post Brian O'Driscoll era.

Cian Healy and Sean O'Brien would seriously improve things along with a fully fit Mike Ross.

What's the story with Donncha Ryan? I was always impressed with his Munster manicness but fair play to Toner, he is definitely international standard now.

I thought Henshaw did well and Payne is worth another look. Zebo was very quiet for some reason. So was Bowe really except for a few chases and of course the try. Kearney was back to his best.

But really what happens to us if Mike Ross is not right in a big game in the 6N or WC?

Sexton was a class apart today and along with Murray you can see the guts of what our WC team will be. Healsip did ok defensively but I hasn't seen him pushed around so much before. Are those SA back-rowers as big as they looked?

[BarryBreensBandage]

With Ireland missing 16 players, does this mean that sport really is all about the manager/coach?

[Syferus]

Famous victory my arse, we were the Six Nations champions playing at home against a side we have perennially been competitive with (and beating, too) for the last decade or more. Injuries or not the underdogs stuff was severely over-egged. South Africa were amateurish at times - no discipline at the ruck and incredibly poor handling. If they had Welsh or Itallian jerseys on we'd have been making far less of the result.

We're at a point where we should be expecting to beat teams like South Africa when they're coming to our house. The standards we're aiming for are pretty damn high now. New Zealand are what we're chasing (SA's calling card was that they beat them a month ago - who won the damn title again?), not the also-rans in the southern hemisphere.

[turk]

Dead right Syferus. This poor mouth stuff is nauseating

[Feckitt]

Famous victory my arse, we were the Six Nations champions playing at home against a side we have perennially been competitive with (and beating, too) for the last decade or more. Injuries or not the underdogs stuff was severely over-egged. South Africa were amateurish at times - no discipline at the ruck and incredibly poor handling. If they had Welsh or Itallian jerseys on we'd have been making far less of the result.

We're at a point where we should be expecting to beat teams like South Africa when they're coming to our house. The standards we're aiming for are pretty damn high now. New Zealand are what we're chasing (SA's calling card was that they beat them a month ago - who won the damn title again?), not the also-rans in the southern hemisphere.

Correctamundo