Springboks' scrum shreds Ireland as Farrell's men hit with five cards

Murray Kinsella Reports from the Aviva Stadium

Ireland 13

South Africa 24

IRELAND MIGHT BE aggrieved about some of the circumstances but the bottom line is that the Springboks came to Dublin and dismantled their set-piece.

The Irish scrum was massacred, with a penalty try for the awesome Springboks forwards only a small part of a miserable tale for the Ireland pack.

This was a madcap game played out in a febrile atmosphere at the Aviva Stadium. There was utter frustration for the home fans as Ireland were shown three yellow cards and a 20-minute red in the opening half, meaning they played a chunk of this game with only 12 players. They had another yellow card in the second half for good measure.

Referee Matthew Carley had cause to show those cards, with James Ryan’s initial yellow fairly upgraded to red for a reckless clearout on Malcolm Marx, but the Irish frustration was in large part because Springboks out-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu surely should have seen at least yellow for an early high shot on Tommy O’Brien.

Carley ruled penalty only in that instance, while the Boks could also have had a yellow card late in the first half when the ball was slapped cynically from Jamison Gibson-Park’s hands minutes before Dan Sheehan scored while Ireland were down to 13. Rassie Erasmus’ men even had a yellow card rescinded in the closing minutes when RG Snyman was sent to the bin but immediately called back on.

But the real story of this game was how the Springboks pack shredded their Irish counterparts at the scrum, winning penalty after penalty at that set-piece, as well as another cluster of them at the maul. They picked off a few Irish lineouts too as Paul O’Connell’s pack had a return of 73% on their own throw.

Andy Farrell’s men certainly displayed a huge amount of character in the face of the numerical challenges. They fought and fought for everything. 

But the reality is that their discipline was a big issue, mainly because of the scrum. 18 penalties conceded meant they were under incessant pressure.

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Ireland could wonder what might have happened if Feinberg-Mngomezulu had been at least sin-binned early on – there were calls from Ireland for red – and if they had been able to convert some early visits into the South African 22 into points.  

But they didn’t. Things that were directly in their control got away from them. Dropped restarts, kicks out on the full, and the set-piece issues meant they never really got a grip on this game. Sheehan’s snappy try, built on carries from Josh van der Flier and Bundee Aki, was a rare flurry of Irish quality amid all the chaos.

The Boks enjoyed all of the carnage as they displayed their unmatched scrum power, while fullback Damian Willemse finished a brilliant, sweeping try in outstanding fashion after just three minutes of the game.

Scrum-half Cobus Reinach darted over for their second from close-range, while the Boks got their scrum penalty on the stroke of half time when Ireland were down to 12 after Sam Prendergast was binned for persistent Irish infringing, Jack Crowley was shown yellow for playing the while off his feet in a ruck, and Porter was binned for repeated scrum penalty concessions.

Both sides had tries chalked off in the first half. Tadhg Beirne thought he had finished on a cracking line after good build-up play but Ryan launched himself off his feet at a breakdown soon before, making contact with Marx’s chin. It was a huge moment.

Soon after, a forward pass from Jasper Wiese to Ruan Nortje was picked up on review and Ireland were spared. 

After a first half that took an hour to complete due to all the bedlam of the cards, the second half wasn’t much better in terms of free-flowing rugby.

Ireland must have been relieved to find themselves only 19-7 down at the break despite their four cards, and their hopes rose when Prendergast knocked over a penalty early in the second half for 19-10.

Just four minutes later, Feinberg-Mngomezulu scorched over for the fourth South African try, though. Ireland were still down to 13, opted to scrummage with eight men, meaning the backline was exposed. The athletic Feinberg-Mngomezulu accelerated and fended his way past Jamison Gibson-Park to score.

Ireland kept fighting, with crucial turnovers on their own tryline from Paddy McCarthy, Caelan Doris and Ryan Baird, then Cian Prendergast, but they were never able to truly lift the pressure. 

There was one intense bout of South African scrummaging dominance under the Irish posts in the final quarter – McCarthy was sin binned this time – and though Farrell’s men didn’t crack again by conceding a fifth try, it was brutal viewing for the home fans.

Ireland did their best to finish with a second try as Boks sub scrum-half Grant Williams was sin-binned, but the Boks managed to shut them out.

The final whistle was met with angry boos after a chaotic dirge of a game. The Boks won’t care after their scrum carried them to victory.

Ireland scorers:

Tries: Dan Sheehan 

Conversions: Jack Crowley [1 from 1]

Penalties: Sam Prendergast [2 from 3]

South Africa scorers:

Tries: Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach, Penalty try, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu

Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu [1 from 3] 

IRELAND: Mack Hansen (Tom Farrell ’65); Tommy O’Brien (Jack Crowley ’32 (yellow card ’40), Garry Ringrose (Craig Casey ’72), Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast (yellow card ’34), Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter (yellow card ’42) (Paddy McCarthy ’61 (yellow card ’63)), Dan Sheehan (Rónan Kelleher ’56), Tadhg Furlong (Finlay Bealham ’61); James Ryan (20-minute red card ’20) (Cian Prendergast ’40), Tadhg Beirne; Ryan Baird (Jack Conan ’61), Josh van der Flier (Paddy McCarthy ’42 to ’50) (Andrew Porter ’63 to ’72), Caelan Doris (captain).

SOUTH AFRICA: Damian Willemse; Canan Moodie, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Cheslin Kolbe; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (Manie Libbok ’59), Cobus Reinach (Grant Williams ’67 (yellow card ’79)); Boan Venter (Gerhard Steenekamp ’42), Malcolm Marx (Johan Grobbelaar ’67 to ’73), Thomas du Toit (Wilco Louw ’42, reversal ’73); Eben Etzebeth (RG Snyman ’50, Ruan Nortje; Siya Kolisi (captain) (André Esterhuizen ’59), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese (Kwagga Smith ’53).

Referee: Matthew Carley [RFU].