"We dug in, we didn't play at our best but sometimes they don't let you." "It was a real, proper test match, South Africa pressure you in way that not many other teams do," Ireland captain Sexton said in a pitchside interview. The host's defence finally buckled 13 minutes from time when South Africa lock Franco Mostert stretched over but their lack of a recognised goalkicker proved costly as a Johnny Sexton penalty meant a 76th minute Kurt-Lee Arendse try was not enough.
Ireland came out on top in a physical battle against South Africa with a 19-16 victory that handed the top side in the global rankings a psychological boost over the world champions ahead of their title defence next year.Īfter a ferocious first 40 minutes that had more injuries than clean line breaks, the game opened up early in the second half with quickfire tries from Josh van der Flier and Mack Hansen that put Ireland 16-6 ahead. Nienaber was left to rue his side's goal-kicking after flyhalf Damian Willemse struggled early on before handing over kicking duties to fullback Cheslin Kolbe, who was unable to convert either of South Africa's two late tries. South Africa captain Siya Kolisi and coach Jacques Nienaber said Ireland fully deserved their win, with Nienaber saying the attacking game Farrell had fine-tuned in recent outings could disguise how strong Ireland can be up front. "The forwards, these are the type of games they want to be involved in, to test themselves and to a man they all stood tall. To say it's pretty pleasing would probably be an understatement."įarrell singled out scrum coach John Fogarty and forwards coach, former captain Paul O'Connell, for praise. "The character that our lads showed, some of them having not played much rugby at all, bit of adversity with injuries etc and then not missing a beat with the first game of the season. Wow, I thought the character of the side was immense," Farrell added, describing the bruising encounter as "a proper old-fashioned test match".
In a relentless first period, Ireland went toe-to-toe with a South African forward pack that loves to grind down opponents, before striking first in a more open second half and remaining resilient to rack up another big win.Īfter playing scintillating rugby to give New Zealand their first back-to-back home defeats in 24 years in July, Ireland had to adapt their game for the world champions with pure guts seeing them through, captain Johnny Sexton said.
0 kommentar(er)
