RUGBY: Given the history, it has to go down as one of the quotes of the year. So, Jake, how many Irish players would make a South African 22 on that evidence? "Well, if that was a trial game today I would have picked all 15 Irish players to go on tour tomorrow." That's what's called eating a large dollop of humble pie, crumbs and all.
Quite why White even went there in the first place is a puzzle. All he did was galvanise the home team and supporters alike, and it perhaps contributed to the Springboks taking their innate superiority complex into this game. The win made it eight out of eight for Ireland with Paul Honiss as referee though White's bitterness about the breakdown was a bit rich given he coaches Schalk Burger.
The thought occurred during the second half, as Ireland assumed a match-winning position, that if they weren't going to go on and end 39 years of hurt now they never would. The preparation, the attitude, the creativity, the host of outstanding individual performers against Tri-Nations champions who weren't at their best. And for a team that keeps posting landmark wins, this was the natural next step.
It was a thrilling finale. But in a sense it was almost a disappointment that the Springboks had got back to within a score. "We should have hammered it home a little bit more, that's the only complaint," said Ronan O'Gara, echoing the thoughts of all his team-mates.
Among many other things, the manner in which Ireland stood up to the task physically was vindication for the 10-week pre-season, and this Irish team are only beginning to reap the benefits of that policy. For that and much else, this was another feather in the cap for Eddie O'Sullivan, as impressive a one as the well-conceived victory over England at Twickenham last season. Typical of him, the preparation for this game was so meticulous by the end of the week the management and players almost had nothing left to say to each other.
"I don't know where he comes up with the ideas, but this one was spot on," O'Gara said of O'Sullivan's game plan. "We kind of got our forwards running at their forwards and after that their resetting wasn't very good, and there was space all over the pitch."
It was tempting to ask O'Sullivan "well then, how many Springboks would make an Irish 22-man squad?" To which the answer surely would have been "maybe three". Not that O'Sullivan would be inclined to demean himself or this achievement by going there.
O'Gara mixed up a sensational kicking game - which O'Sullivan likened to the ball being on a rope - with his fast, flat distribution to give the outside backs space.
Of his quick-witted try, O'Gara recalled: "They didn't seem to be very organised and I said to Paulie (O'Connell) 'we could be on here'. I put the ball down and looked at the touchline so they kind of looked away. So I said: 'Paulie, let's go,' and he took Bakkies Botha's attention and just straight in, y'know."
O'Gara had been made alert to it by the memory of Lee Jarvis doing likewise to Munster at Musgrave Park in their only home European defeat six years ago. "I was talking to Donncha (O'Callaghan) afterwards and he said I'd been attempting a few in Munster games, so it's great that it came off in such a big game."
He's the man now all right, and you couldn't quibble with his man- of-the-match award. Yet as influential as any performance in the way the game unfolded was that of Shane Horgan. Of all his 32 caps, this probably gave Horgan more satisfaction than any other. He has always been a centre playing on the wing, but his three previous starts at centre hadn't been distinguished.
Against the midfield axis of De Wet Barry and the even more snarling, abrasive Marius Joubert, this was where Horgan, initially, and later O'Driscoll, punched the biggest holes. If there could be one quibble with the Irish performance - and it was one which the players themselves clearly shared - it was that they didn't finish off more chances. One thinks also of the times Horgan got over the gain-line and freed his hands but there were no support runners.
Marcus Horan had only a 10-minute cameo at the end, and a tough one at that, but it was a great way to end a lousy week. "I think Eddie realised the tough week I'd had, and it didn't help being away from the camp on Wednesday," said Horan in reference to the ERC hearing which threw out the Ospreys' accusation of making a racist comment.
"Sitting in the ERC office and going through the whole thing I felt so bitter because I was the one with a scar on my forehead," he reflected. "You lose all trust in human nature when people resort to that sort of thing."
Horan is likely to start next week's game against the USA Eagles, which will afford O'Sullivan a rare chance to broaden his personnel options before regathering this line-up for another "derby" with Argentina, with their crop of elusive and inventive young backs.
So for this week, a fair proportion of Saturday's line-up might be able to bask in the glow of this historic win. Right now, at a time when Irish sport has been dragging itself through the mire, this Irish rugby team, and indeed the top tier of Irish rugby, shines like a beacon.
