Talk about a turnaround. That grim night when the countries last met in Ravenhill two years ago seemed more like light years away. Whether this match was an accurate barometer of South Africa's strength in depth, Irish rugby has clearly made significant strides, for this was as convincing a win as it was compelling.
All in all, Thomond Park provided another exceptionally uplifting occasion, for Irish rugby as a whole, and for both the A team collectively and a host of individuals. It almost goes without saying that hats must be tipped to Declan Kidney and Niall O'Donovan, for Ireland were far better organised, and far more tactically inventive.
Yet it went deeper than that too. Ultimately, the Irish pack bossed the set-pieces with an authority which increased as the match went on. With the tight five leading the way, what was most encouragingly was that they competed in the physical stakes, matching the Springboks every inch of the way.
Mick O'Driscoll had an mighty game, helping to snatch five Springboks throws, while all the back row were immense. Alan Quinlan seemed forever in the visitors' faces, Victor Costello drove with his customary gusto and David Wallace just gets better with each step up the ladder. Their defensive work around the fringes was also unremitting.
Tom Tierney misjudged a few kicks, but he was tailor-made for the occasion, tackling mightily and giving his most effective performance at such a high level in a couple of years. The slightly wild, enigmatic Jeremy Staunton ran the gamut, while the centres held the upper hand in midfield, potmarking the occasion with some explosive rumbles.
"If that's our second string and that's their second string," observed Irish assistant coach Eddie O'Sullivan, "then we must have a good shout if we show the same level of intensity. It was a tremendous performance, the product of hard work and disrupting their set-pieces."
Admittedly, four of their starting line-up - including captain Ollie le Roux - arrived from Buenos Aires, via Dublin, in Limerick only the night before the game. Even so, this hardly accounted for Ireland's tactical supremacy and more positive approach generally.
This was most evident in the lineouts, where Ireland varied their options far more effectively, whereas the visitors mixed in a couple of crooked throws with fairly basic options. The South Africans' defensive alignment also pushed up in a line a little raggedly, and compounded this with missed first-up tackles, while on the gain line this was nothing like the physical mismatch of two years ago.
Remembering that grim night, as heartening as anything else was the sight of the outstanding Quinlan hitting the big South African lock Hottie Louw like a rag doll early on to force a penalty for not releasing. That set the tone.
The first half, especially, seemed to revolve utterly around the mercurial Staunton, primarily because he took on so much. Louw fumbled his kick-off, Maggs gathered and from the recycle the quick-witted Staunton chipped and chased to force a five-metre scrum. When South Africa were penalised, Staunton duly landed the difficult, angled kick to open the scoring. So far so good.
Gaffie du Toit quickly levelled matters when the Irish front row was penalised. But the visitors conceded a rash of blatant penalties, and Staunton, though having missed a couple of easier ones, landed a couple, albeit either side of a horribly miscued drop goal attempt.
But Ireland still manufactured the try they deserved off Bob Casey's take, Staunton using decoy runners with a skip pass to Maggs who deftly delivered a disguised short pass which totally deceived the drifting Stefan Terblanche. Justin Bishop sped through the yawning gap to score, and the 14-3 interval lead was about right.
Stuanton then fumbled a routine pass from Tierney to put his side under intense pressure, from which they were relieved to concede merely a short-range penalty to du Toit for offside. That was redressed, however, when Ireland again manufactured a try off a lineout.
This time it was Staunton, lining up one of his long passes, who threw the defence with a disguised short pass for Mike Mullins on the burst. Displaying his exceptional explosiveness, Mullins powered through Johan Wasserman and Chris Rossouw, then side-stepped inside du Toit and Terblanche in turn for a stunning try which Staunton converted.
Far from letting up, Ireland took them on in the scrums, mauled them off lineouts, cranked up the pressure around the fringes and charged down kicks. Striking stealthily, Tierney tapped a penalty for a collapsed five-metre scrum and plunged for the line in a micro-second.
A late, high shoulder charge by the over-charged AJ Venter on Staunton ended both their games; the former was sin-binned and the groggy Staunton was helped off.
Only then, curiously, did the South Africans use their wings, and one of their few successes, du Toit, fended off Murphy to score a try. Not much consolation for the Sprinboks mind.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Staunton pen 30; 5: du Toit pen 3-3; 22: Staunton pen 6-3; 30: Staunton pen 9-3; 37: Bishop try 14-3; 46: du Toit pen 14-6; 57: Mullins try, Staunton con 216; 65: Tierney try, Staunton con 28-6; 84: du Toit try 28-11.
Ireland A: G Murphy (Leicester); J Bishop (London Irish), M Mullins (Young Munster), K Maggs (Bath), A Horgan (Cork Constitution); J Staunton (Garryowen), T Tierney (Garryowen, capt); E Byrne (St Mary's), S Byrne (Blackrock), P Wallace (Saracens), B Casey (Blackrock), M O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution), A Quinlan (Shannon), D Wallace (Garryowen), V Costello (St Mary's). Replace- ments: P Smyth (St Mary's) for S Byrne (80 mins), M Horan (Shannon) for E Byrne (69 mins), L Cullen (Blackrock) for Casey (79 mins), T McWhirter (Ballymena) for Costello (79 mins), B Everitt (London Irish) for Staunton (76 mins), J Kelly (Cork Con) for Horgan (half-time).
South Africa A: G du Toit; S Terblanche, D Kayser, J Mulder, G Passens; C Rossouw, C Davidson; O le Roux (capt), D Du Preez, L Sephaka, H Louw, V Matfield, H Gerber, J Wasserman, AJ Venter. Replacements - C Marais for du Preez (43 mins), C van der Merwe for Sephaka (63 mins), Q Davids for Louw (63 mins), D van Zyl for Davidson (52 mins).
Referee: P Adams (Wales).
