Second Test: South Africa v Ireland
Kings Park, Durban, Saturday, 4.0 Irish time
Live on Sky Sports Action
The messages emanating from the Ireland camp this week were a series of exhortations to be better and to do better. The unvarnished truth of the first Test defeat was that Ireland’s performance didn’t properly represent the standards that coaches and players expect. The interval review stripped bare the cause of defeat to the root, exposing mistakes, mental and physical.
The tourists may have suffered the rough end of the officiating but no one sought refuge there. There was a lack of intensity in the first half, a passivity that wormed its way into both attack and defence; the shortfall in concentration, communication and execution poisoned the best of intentions.
Caelan Doris, who will captain Ireland for the second time on Saturday, addressed the minutiae of the process. He said: “We had a good meeting on Wednesday in particular where we saw some clips that we felt weren’t us. It wasn’t what we’ve shown over the last number of years in terms of some of the smaller things, our work rate for each other, standing up for each other a little bit, our response to a couple of positives from them, and not responding how we would have in the past.
“It brought up a little bit of hurt, and it was frustrating seeing those images back and it makes you want to fly into the match as soon as possible. We had a good training session off the back of that and I feel the lads have a bit of an edge. We also spoke about [being] calm, doing things our way, which we can’t go away from either. It’s trying to strike that balance between being calm but having a bit of an edge and aggression.”
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Ireland are excellent front-runners, but they don’t chase as well, a fact borne out in examining their most recent defeats prior to travelling to South Africa. Immediately ceding control in Pretoria didn’t augur well but even then sharper, more intuitive game management might have delivered a different outcome.
Injuries arising from last weekend’s defeat have informed selection. Ireland are fortunate that in Garry Ringrose, Conor Murray, Rónan Kelleher and James Ryan they possess players with high-end capacity as they have proven in the past. Tadhg Beirne’s redeployment at blindside flanker ensures continuity in terms of the lineout calling. It’s a component part of which the visitors will expect a little more as they didn’t lay a glove on the Springboks in Pretoria, although the maul defence was superb.
The scrum was a triumph initially, winning two penalties and a free kick but that momentum was diffused by the arrival of the Springboks’ ‘bomb squad, who twice squeezed Ireland until they popped, the second of which led to a penalty try.
The visitors got some traction at the breakdown causing South African scrumhalf Faf de Klerk some discomfort, but more precision and speed will be required to protect Irish ball. It’s not just down to Murray to maintain or sustain the high tempo that will be important to Ireland’s attacking patterns. Pitch, up, pitch in, and keep the ball moving could be a mantra. The jersey number doesn’t matter.
Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong made significant contributions and will be pivotal again on Saturday in all aspects of the game. Irish ball carriers need to make themselves less readily identifiable to the South African double tackle; footwork, tip-on passes, shifting ball further away from the fringes of the breakdown will ensure that as an occupation it will be less physically punishing.
Putting boot to ball requires precision. Whether box-kicking, cross-kicks, punting or grubber kicks, it needs to be well thought out and not simply a rote option oblivious to circumstance. James Lowe’s power in contact and ability to offload were lucrative assets, while the strike-play for Murray’s try was a beauty.
A challenge for Ireland is that they need to be more proactive in possession, depth, lines and pace, and kicking to space or contestables will be key in trying to prise open Jerry Flannery’s Springbok defence.
South Africa used outside centre Jesse Kriel as a distributor as well as a buttress, while Siya Kolisi and Pieter-Steph du Toit popped up in wider channels. Number eight Kwagga Smith had a roving commission to hit rucks, clean out, support, or take on static ball. Backs coach Tony Smith will have a few more wrinkles in his attacking ploys.
But if you examine last week’s South African tries only Kurt-Lee Arendse’s could be deemed to have a creative gene. While they possess superior speed on the edges the home side may lean more heavily on the power game this week and in trying to make better use of turnover ball, a byproduct of more aggressive defence.
Andy Farrell’s Ireland teams have shown the capacity to successfully tidy up and reboot a game plan within a week but not when missing a handful of frontline players including two of the best who didn’t tour. This is where everything that’s been said during the week publicly, but more importantly privately, needs to translate to the pitch.
It will require everyone in the 23 to accomplish it. South Africa are bigger favourites than last week, nine points, but if Ireland can dredge up the energy and accuracy of better Test match days and break even on the officiating, they might just confound everyone, bar themselves, and win.
SOUTH AFRICA: W le Roux (Bulls); C Kolbe (Suntory Sungoliath), J Kriel (Canon Eagles), D de Allende (Wild Knights), K-L Arendse (Bulls); H Pollard (Leicester Tigers), F de Klerk (Canon Eagles); O Nche (Sharks), B Mbonambi (Sharks), F Malherbe (Stormers); E Etzebeth (Sharks), F Mostert (Honda Heat); S Kolisi (Racing 92, capt), P-S du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), K Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs).
Replacements: M Marx (Kubota Spears), G Steenekamp (Bulls), V Koch (Sharks), S Moerat (Stormers), RG Snyman (Leinster), M van Staden (Bulls), G Williams (Sharks), S Feinberg-Mngomezulu (Stormers).
IRELAND: J Osborne (Leinster); C Nash (Munster), G Ringrose (Leinster), R Henshaw (Leinster), J Lowe (Leinster); J Crowley (Munster), C Murray (Munster); A Porter (Leinster), D Sheehan (Leinster), T Furlong (Leinster); J McCarthy (Leinster), J Ryan (Leinster); T Beirne (Munster), J Van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster, capt).
Replacements: R Herring (Ulster), C Healy (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht), R Baird (Leinster), P O’Mahony (Munster), C Blade (Connacht), C Frawley (Leinster) S McCloskey (Ulster).
Referee: K Dickson (England).
