Gerry Thornley: Ireland beat South Africa to shake rugby world

Rory Best’s team didn’t just beat the Springboks on South African soil for the first time ever here on Saturday, they defied logic and all manner of odds.

Already down to 14 men from the 23rd minute, when they fell behind 13-10 and were reduced to 13 men for 10 minutes, you could probably have made up the odds on Ireland winning.

In this iconic ground, on a sunny Cape Town winter day overlooked by Table Mountain, Ireland had the proverbial mountain to climb all right. Yet their composure and belief never wavered. Perhaps Ireland’s red and yellow cards had lulled the Boks into a false sense of security. Bizarrely, cometh the hour with the home side losing 20-13 at home to 14-man Ireland, little ould Ireland, the 42,620 crowd indulged in a Mexican wave. Even more surreal was the sight of the Irish scrum, with Andrew Trimble packing down in the back-row, winning a penalty. This was not exactly intimidating.

The thing is, Ireland deserved it for their composure and voracious collective defensive work ethic in a crisis; and their willingness to keep playing.

Joe Schmidt had spoken beforehand of the need for leaders to emerge in light of losing alpha males such as Paul O'Connell, not to mention Brian O'Driscoll, Johnny Sexton and Sean O'Brien. Well, in response to CJ Stander's 23rd minute red card, the spine of the team was led superbly from Rory Best through Devin Toner, Jamie Heaslip, Conor Murray, Paddy Jackson and Jared Payne.

To further put this stunning victory into perspective the last time Ireland had a player sent off was also in an end-of-season tour opener, when Jamie Heaslip was brandished with a 16th minute red card for kneeing Richie McCaw, Ireland were already 10-0 down. When, similarly, Ronan O’Gara was yellow carded, Ireland conceded a further 21 points when down to 13 men to trail 38-0 at half-time. Ireland’s four converted second-half tries salvaged some measure of pride, but it still finished 66-28.

By comparison, Ireland were deservedly 10-3 up when Stander was red-carded and were about to go 13-10 behind when Henshaw was sinbinned. Yet in the next 10 minutes they actually outscored the Boks 3-0.

Brilliant

Ireland’s defence with 13 men was astonishing, using the touchline as a 14th defender as brilliant corner flagging by Murray (who else?) and Jackson denied Duane Vermeulen and Franois Louw tries when either of each might have been another blow to the solar plexis too many.

“When they went 13-10 up nobody panicked,” said Schmidt. “We sent a simple message on, build and take the drop goal if it’s on and Jacko just did it like a past master. It was a class effort.”

Even though you suspect he must be churning inside, Schmidt always conveys the impression of being unemotional at all times. And so as it was after the red and yellow cards, the interval was used to get across the strategy for the remaining minute-and-a-half without Henshaw.

“We didn’t quite execute it, we might have even lost a lineout but we defended well enough to shut them down, Robbie got back on and once he got back on I do think we looked dangerous a few times and we earned the try we got.”

From Payne’s under-arm one-handed pass out of the tackle, which Schmidt described as “pure class”, Andrew Trimble’s pass inside was deflected to the ground by Ollie le Roux. “But who’s there to pick it up? Captain Fantastic (Best), scoops it up, we get the continuity and on the back of that we’re able to score,” added Schmidt in reference to Murray’s strong finish in beating the tackle of Lood de Jager for his fifth try in his last eight tests.

“Once we got that try,” said Schmidt, “there was still 35 minutes to go but I think the players then thought ‘maybe’. And the longer the half went they thought ‘this is an opportunity’, and they managed to dig in and make the most of it.”

Consider too that Jackson hit the upright with a long-range penalty (his only miss of six off the ‘t’) shaved the upright with a drop goal and one of South Africa’s two tries was courtesy of Pieter-Steph du Toit intercepting his intended skip pass for McGrath straight after the outhalf had kicked Ireland 23-20 ahead.

Apart from that blemish and a restart out on the full, Jackson orchestrated the performance magnificently in tandem with the increasingly influential Murray. His tactical kicking was good, his distribution its usual self and, as usual, he made his 13 tackles.

Indeed, when a team has workhorses like Jack McGrath and Heaslip, they always have a chance of making up a numerical imbalance. Arguably no two players have carried a heavier load this season. Yet, already with more than 700 minutes of test rugby this season alone (a phenomenal tally for a prop) McGrath completed another 80 minutes here and was Ireland’s leading tackler with 17, as well as carrying well, while Heaslip chipped in with 13.

Along with the expected energy injected into their defence by Andy Farrell, the enforced changes also freshened up the team. Iain Henderson, Jordi Murphy and Luke Marshall all revelled in their call-ups after being on the outside looking in on the Six Nations, and Payne oozed class from full-back. The wings, Keith Earls and Andrew Trimble, were sharp in all their work and dangerous runners too.

Ah, heroes abounded everywhere. Some win. Some day.

Scoring sequence: 11 mins Payne try, Jackson con 0-7; 16 mins Lambie pen 3-7; 19 mins Jackson pen 3-10; 26 mins Jantjies pen 6-10; 32 mins Mvovo try, Jantjies con 13-10; 37 mins Jackosn drop goal 13-13; (half-time 13-13); 43 mins Murray try, Jackson con 13-20; 68 mins Jackson pen 13-23; 69 mins du Toit try, Jantjies con 20-23;77 mins Jackson pen 20-26.

South Africa: Willie le Roux (Cell C Sharks); JP Pietersen (Cell C Sharks), Lionel Mapoe (Emirates Lions), Damian De Allende (DHL Stormers), Lwazi Mvovo (Cell C Sharks); Pat Lambie (Cell C Sharks), Faf de Klerk (Emirates Lions); Tendai Mtawarira (Cell C Sharks), Adriaan Strauss (Vodacom Bulls) (capt), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Eben Etzebeth (DHL Stormers), Lood de Jager (Toyota Cheetahs), Francois Louw (Bath), Siya Kolisi (DHL Stormers), Duane Vermeulen (Toulon).

Replacements: Elton Jantjies (Emirates Lions) for Lambie (23 mins), Pieter-Steph du Toit (DHL Stormers) for de Jager, Warren Whiteley (Emirates Lions) for Louw (both 56 mins), Trevor Nyakane (Vodacom Bulls) for Mtawarira (59 mins), Rudy Paige (Vodacom Bulls) for de Klerk, Jesse Kriel (Vodacom Bulls) for Mapoe (both 68 mins), Julian Redelinghuys (Emirates Lions) for Malherbe (77 mins). Not used: Bongi Mbonambi (DHL Stormers). Sinbinned: de Jager (11-21 mins).

Ireland: Jared Payne (Ulster); Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster), Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Connacht), Luke Marshall (Ballymena/Ulster), Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster); Paddy Jackson (Dungannon/Ulster), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Jack McGrath (St. Mary's College/Leinster), Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) (capt), Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster), Iain Henderson (Ballynahinch/Ulster), Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster), Jordi Murphy (Lansdowne/Leinster), Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster).

Replacements: Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster) for Ross (59 mins),

Ultan Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht) for Henderson (69 mins),

Sean Cronin (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) for Best (70 mins),

Rhys Ruddock (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) for Murphy (74 mins),

Craig Gilroy (Bangor/Ulster) for Earls (77 mins)

Not used _ Finlay Bealham (Corintians/Connacht),

Kieran Marmion (Corinthians/Connacht),

Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster),

Sent off: Stander (23 mins). Sin-binned: Henshaw (32-42 mins).