{"id":139330,"date":"2025-11-14T11:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T11:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/139330\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T11:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T11:28:10","slug":"they-smile-at-ireland-in-that-pat-on-the-head-sort-of-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/139330\/","title":{"rendered":"They smile at Ireland in that pat-on-the-head sort of way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">GOT A grumpy flight home from Toulon to La Rochelle on Saturday to catch the last half an hour of South Africa\u2019s test rugby clinic at the Stade de France. An exhibition in showcasing the importance of the 23-man game teed up by the XV who started softening up the ground and the opposition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This was textbook stuff. Coming off a Top 14 defeat in Toulon that had moments of appeal and promise offset by inconsistency and falloff, the Springboks were balm for the tormented soul. The worry for everyone watching France-South Africa was had the game continued for another half an hour, the margin was only getting wider. And the ones landing the debilitating blows were playing a man down. As an exercise in alpha male oneupmanship, it doesn\u2019t come with a bigger exclamation mark.<\/p>\n<p>This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/login\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"IE Logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4633150_1_org_IE_logo_modals.png\" width=\"340\" height=\"41\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\tUnlimited access. Half the price.<\/p>\n<p>Annual \u20ac130\u20ac65<\/p>\n<p class=\"best-value\">Best value<\/p>\n<p>Monthly \u20ac12\u20ac6 \/ month<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Benefits image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4750392_1_org_Save_50_offer.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"footer-info\">Introductory offer. Annual billed once for first year. Monthly (discount first 3 months) billed monthly, then \u20ac12\/month. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/terms-conditions\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Ts&amp;Cs<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n<p>\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOT A grumpy flight home from Toulon to La Rochelle on Saturday to catch the last half an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[23713,54046,42553,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-139330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-irish-examiner-instagram-sport","tag-irish-rugby","tag-ronan-ogara","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}