Irish meet a different level of intensity

These Springboks may still be in their teething stages as a team and, in the exceptional case of man-of-the-series Schalk Burger and others, as individuals. Truer tests are around the corner, most notably in the Tri-Nations, but in time-honoured South African fashion, they would have preferred to commit suicide than lose to Ireland.

Well after the dust had settled, their impressive new coach, Jake White, gave the clearest indication yet as to their mindset going into this series and hinted that Ireland might be more mindful of this in the future after talking up their chances of becoming the first Irish side to win on South African soil.

Asked what might Ireland learn from this series, White paused for thought and said: "I think without taking our huge tradition and history into consideration, to come to South Africa and expect to win would be - how should I put this? - naïve. We've a proud tradition in Springbok rugby and one of the things we talked at length about amongst ourselves before the series and this game was that we would not become the first Springbok team to lose at home to Ireland."

Even a raw, remodelled Boks seemed to be strikingly more physical from one to 15 than Ireland - a point several Irish players have admitted. White endorsed this enthusiastically.

"In our country we have been gifted by generations of big rugby players. As the great Doc Craven said once, a good big one will always beat a good little one," he commented with a smile, and admitted that due to the heavier collisions in open play, this applied now more than ever.

"A country like Ireland will always have the numbers against them. In South Africa we are blessed to have big players and the game has become such a contact sport. When you see somebody like Os du Randt making a tackle on an outhalf after 76 minutes, you know that in the modern game, rather than forwards and backs, you need 15 athletes."

Irish players also spoke of the greater intensity they met here, and of the need to play the Southern Hemisphere heavyweights more often.

It was a particularly rough day at the office for Ronan O'Gara, who got man and ball so often that he scarcely had room to breathe, before being called ashore two minutes before the Springboks had one of their centres sin-binned.

"It's a whole new intensity compared to Six Nations rugby. Away from home, to be competitive, we probably need to add another few strings to our bow. Against the top two or three teams in the world you're probably not going to achieve forward dominance. We need to look at how to break down teams on the back foot and stuff," O'Gara said.

"I'm probably the team's dominant kicker so teams are focusing in on you from all over the park. There's not much space there. But I think we've learned a lot from it."

Paul O'Connell dug as deep as anyone with another no-holds-barred performance and like others of this newer, more ambitious era could scarcely conceal his disappointment. "This whole two weeks was all about winning a Test down here. It wasn't about moral victories or learning curves or like that, it was about winning a Test. To be honest, the last two weeks are a failure."

Looking ahead, he added: "I think the 10-week pre-season is going to be massive for us. I think there'll be no excuses from next autumn on hopefully. When we meet South Africa again in the autumn, I think we can definitely turn them if everything goes okay."