No scrum, no win. We’re living in the age of GPS, exhaustive analysis and all manner of innovations, but there are certain things about rugby which will never change. A dominant scrum will get you very far.
There are plenty of talking points to consider after Saturday night’s controversial, chaotic and compelling contest at Aviva Stadium. We’ll get to the officiating and all the other talking points.
Bottom line, Ireland got bullied in Ballsbridge. Their scrum was melted. It was like a rerun of the Twickenham horror show in 2012 when Tom Court was tortured, twisted and terrorised by a rampant English pack. There will be more set-piece PTSD after this galling loss. That’s the headline to take away. The rest of the other stuff is just noise.
Rónan Kelleher. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
The back-to-back champions arrived in Dublin on a mission. To batter Ireland into submission. You could sense it among the sizeable South African support which took over Baggot Street and Ballsbridge in the hours leading up to kick-off. They were in expectant mood.
Rassie Erasmus’ stellar squad have conquered all before them in the past six years. A brace of World Cups. A Lions series. A bucketload of Rugby Championship titles and big wins in Wellington and Paris of late, with the All Blacks and France treated like cannon fodder.
But one stubborn outpost remained: Dublin. A South African team had not tasted victory on Irish soil in 13 years. Eben Etzebeth was the only player on duty who was on the field when the Boks last won a Test here in December 2012. Etzebeth and Co took care of some unfinished business.
South Africa’s Damian Willemse scores his sides first try of the match despite Ireland’s Sam Prendergast. Pic: Gary Carr/Prendergast. Pic: INPHO
The last four meetings between these sides had been one-score games, a sign of a growing rivalry. But the gulf in class felt vast on this occasion. The flurry of cards and the officiating will dominate the post-match narrative but when things calm down and this Irish squad sits down to sift through the wreckage during an uncomfortable video review, they will all come to the same grim conclusion.
They were outmuscled, out thought and outclassed for long swathes of an alarming contest, which threw up a lot of red flags about this current Ireland squad. Where do you start with that first half? The boos were deafening around the stadium after referee Matthew Carley signalled the end of what was a positively bonkers first half.
Ireland had just conceded a penalty try to compound what was a positively traumatic 15 minutes on their home turf.
Referee Matthew Carley gives Ireland’s James Ryan a yellow card after TMO review
Pic: Gary Carr/INPHO
Farrell’s troops had seemingly weathered the storm after James Ryan’s 20th minute yellow card – which was subsequently upgraded to a red by the bunker – when Dan Sheehan plundered a try after Ireland’s best attacking spell of the game.
What unfolded was bordering on farce, with Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley – who had replaced a battered and bruised Tommy O’Brien – and Andrew Porter all sent to the sin-bin during a devastating spell.
There will be furious debate in the days to come about Carley’s officiating during this spell. But park all the outrage for a moment and consider the pictures the match official was seeing.
Because Ireland were on the rack at this stage. Their discipline, set-piece and kicking game had gone to pieces. The Boks had their tails up. They were eviscerating the Irish pack in every scrum. They were punching holes at will. The home side were absorbing wave after wave of green and gold-clad monsters charging around every corner.
All that pressure was going to take its toll. The net result was a 19-7 deficit with three men on the naughty step. Not ideal against the best team in the world.
God knows what Farrell said to the players at the break. Well, the ones who were still on the field. The Ireland head coach had surveyed some chaotic half-time dressing rooms in the past. Think back to Murrayfield in 2023 when Ireland suffered a freakish number of injuries during their Six Nations clash with the Scots.
The Ireland team looking dejected. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
The number of walking wounded was so stark that Farrell and his players starting laughing in the changing room. The response was impressive. A patched-together Irish pack, with Cian Healy packing down at hooker and Josh van der Flier doing an emergency job as a lineout thrower, duly beat Scotland out the gate.
Ireland were going to need another Houdini act in the second half. Prendergast’s first act after returning from the sin-bin was to boom over a long-range penalty. A precious piece of stability at time when Ireland’s world was falling apart.
It was merely a temporary reprieve. The Boks were finding gaps in the Irish defence even when they had 15 players on the field. Now, they were being picked off.
Many spectators leaving the stadium, and the hundreds of thousands viewing the game on the box, would have felt that Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu’s night should have been done early doors when he caught O’Brien with that clumsy high shot.
How galling then to see South Africa’s new superstar at No10 turn on the afterburners and leave a trail of Irish defenders for dead. There was still 30 minutes left on the clock but that try felt like curtains. RG Snyman was soon sent into the fray. This ragged Irish team were now going to have deal with the ‘Bomb Squad’ bench.
Jack Crowley of Ireland tussles with RG Snyman of South Africa. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Despite the circumstances, there was still plenty of fight in the Irish ranks. This was a rough night but Ryan Baird emerged with huge credit. The blindside flanker is a player renowned for highlights reel moments, but he showed plenty of grit and old-school dog last night.
Just when it looked like the Boks were going to beat down the door again, Cian Prendergast – on for Ryan – won a turnover penalty under the sticks. Another bit of defensive defiance just when it looks like the floodgates were about to pour open.
The home side were like a boxer on the ropes, hanging in there, while a heavyweight opponent landed blow after blow. Something was going to give. South Africa simply had too much ball and too many good players on the pitch.
Another monstrous scrum had the Irish pack seemingly on skates. Paddy McCarthy took the hit for that as he became the fifth Irish player of the night to be banished to the sin-bin. The hosts had conceded a whopping 17 penalties at that stage. You couldn’t blame all of it on the ref. It was the result of relentless pressure.
Ireland continued to show admirable fight. The second half scoreboard could have blown out. Farrell’s men continued to front up and repel a South African side which smelled blood in the water all evening. Credit to the home side, who showed guts in the face of overwhelming dominance. But this is a defeat which will leave deep scars.