A defiant Andy Farrell felt his side’s chaotic 24-13 defeat by South Africa will stand to his team down the line.
On a turbulent evening at Aviva Stadium, Ireland lost James Ryan to a 20-minute red card while Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were all shown yellow cards.
South Africa, who enjoyed massive scrum dominance all night, outclassed the hosts with Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu crossing for tries while the visiting pack also squeezed a penalty try out of their opponents.
Ireland Head Coach Andy Farrell. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Despite being outmuscled for most of the contest, Farrell hailed the fight and courage in the home ranks. ‘Well, if you can’t learn from that, then you’re in the wrong place, really,’ he said.
‘For all sorts of reasons, I thought going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for the country, certainly in that first ten minutes of that second half, it was absolutely amazing.
‘And I think you could see with the crowd, the effort that they put in, that the crowd recognised that and supported them. ‘To be able to win a second-half 6-5 under those type of circumstances, I know it doesn’t tell a full story of the second-half, but it’s actually amazing, really, that that happened, or that occurred.
Ireland captain Caelan Doris dejected after the match. Pic: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
‘The lessons to learn are, when you fight so hard to give yourself a chance, and you’re at 72 minutes, trying to overplay probably in your own 22, you’ve still got time on the clock to put ourselves back in the right field positions.
‘We overplayed a little bit and wasted a little bit of time, but then we found a way, and with four minutes to go, we had a glaring chance to score a try under the post, and (if) we scored that with four minutes to go, who knows what could have happened with a little bit of momentum, but we couldn’t do that, so all credit has to go to South Africa.’
Asked about Feinberg-Mngomezulu contentious high tackle on Tommy O’Brien early in the game, Farrell replied: ‘Well, you’re asking the question because you thought so as well.’
Dan Sheehan of Ireland, left, celebrates with James Lowe after scoring their side’s try. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Farrell’s troops seemed to steady the ship after Dan Sheehan’s well-worked try had cut South Africa’s lead to five points but the hosts endured a nightmare finish to the first-half with a flurry of yellow cards and the concession of a penalty try.
In the space of 90 seconds, Ireland shoot themselves in the foot and handed the win to the Boks. ‘You can look at all sorts of different situations as well within the game and you can say that that was the turning point,’ said Farrell.
‘The yellow card that went to red was a try that we’d scored and obviously pulled back and started the game pretty well, but then on the back foot, certainly as far as under the pump there with scrum, obviously. Then a few stupid errors from ourselves playing the ball through the ruck and I think with three offside penalties.
Jack Crowley and Sam Prendergast of Ireland on the bench after both being yellow carded. Pic: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
‘They’re the manageable ones that you don’t give a team like that access, but we did. They try and cause a bit of chaos within the game, certainly at scrum time, but in general as well I thought we just lost our composure a little bit as far as that’s concerned.
‘Certainly, at the end, though, as far as our shape is concerned. Some of the stuff that we did really well last week didn’t really transfer this week. Our kicking game was a bit long and a bit off at times.
‘Our high ball stuff was way better last week and our conversion in the 22 was way better obviously than last week.’
Andrew Porter of Ireland after receiving a yellow card. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
The Irish scrum endured a torrid evening against a powerful Springbok pack, with Andrew Porter and his fellow frontrowers feeling the heat all evening. But Farrell refused to reach for excuses after seeing his forwards eviscerated at the set-piece.
‘You can talk about all sorts of stuff that you’ve talked to the referees beforehand during the week and say those are the same type of pitches, etc. But you’ve got to look at yourself first,’ he added.
‘You’ve got to give the referee the access to see you in whatever type of light that he was, obviously, seeing us in. And he saw a dominant scrum. And whether there’s illegalities within all that, we’ve got to see past that and be better than that.’