{"id":302276,"date":"2025-11-22T22:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T22:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302276\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T22:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T22:09:14","slug":"rassie-erasmus-telling-concession-after-win-over-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/302276\/","title":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus’ telling concession after win over\u00a0Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rassie Erasmus has beaten Ireland<\/a> in Dublin for the first time, with South Africa<\/a> defeating the world\u2019s fourth-ranked side 24-13 in the Quilter Nations Series \u2013 the Springboks\u2019 first win at the Aviva Stadium since 2012.<\/p>\n

Ireland had tasted victory in the previous three meetings between the teams at the famed venue, including a hard-fought three-point win two years ago. South Africa had a 33 per cent winning record over the Irish between their victories in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The Irish made history last weekend with a statement 46-19 triumph over the Wallabies, while South Africa had recorded clinical wins over France<\/a> and Italy<\/a> earlier in the November international window.<\/p>\n

Those two wins saw the Springboks stretch their winning streak out to eight matches, with the chance to extend it to nine deep into their season. In another chapter of this fierce rivalry, Damian Willemse<\/a> struck first with a try in the third minute.<\/p>\n

Cobus Reinach scored and a penalty try was awarded in South Africa\u2019s favour, as they took a 10-point lead into the break. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu<\/a> and the team\u2019s defence were difference-makers in the second term, as the visitors held on for a famous result.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny beer is nice after a win, especially against a quality team Ireland who\u2019s totally dominated us since we\u2019ve been in a group together,\u201d Erasmus told reporters post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that there\u2019s that if you take the five games, they\u2019re still I think 3-2 up against us so we won\u2019t get carried away with it, but yeah, the beers are a little bit sweeter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just thankful that we could manage to beat them here. It\u2019s been a long season for our guys\u2026 we are proud after a long season to grind through a win against a team that like at home for the first time in I think 13 or 14 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the first head-to-head meeting between the sides since Ireland claimed a famous 25-24 win in Durban in July 2024. The Boks had to wait a while to bounce back in this match-up, but they\u2019ve made a statement two years out from the Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n

South Africa continues to hold top spot on World Rugby\u2019s rankings, while Ireland were fourth coming into their final Test of 2025. Both sides will be in the top band of teams when the Rugby World Cup<\/a> Draw takes place next month in Australia.<\/p>\n

The Springboks haven\u2019t lost since falling to the All Blacks<\/a> in early September, bouncing back with a record win over the same foe the following week. They\u2019ve since beaten Argentina<\/a> twice, Japan, France, Italy and now Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aim this year was to try and end in the top four,\u201d Erasmus said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people might have expected us to win because they\u2019re four in the world and we\u2019re one in the world but we\u2019re still know if we lose to Wales<\/a> next weekend we can drop two places.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the top four in the world rankings was probably the aim for us\u2026 I think we\u2019ve used 50 players this year\u2026. our first goal was to be in the top four so the pool draw can be okay.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are getting better in swapping in and out in different positions but a lot of work still to do. We think we can stay at the top.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rassie Erasmus has beaten Ireland in Dublin for the first time, with South Africa defeating the world\u2019s fourth-ranked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-302276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}