Ireland took on the Springboks at Croke Park, Dublin today. Ireland won 15 / 10.
It is with mixed emotions that I make this match summary…
Let’s start at the beginning. It was a pleasure, no an absolute pleasure, seeing the Springbok scrum going forward… the first 3 scrums must have scared the Irish silly and then came the fourth scrum and the Bokke pulverised the Irish even more, leading to a well worked move left and Schalk Burger, the old war horse barging his way over the try line for the only try of the match.
Morné Steyn converted the try and at this stage the Sringboks were leading 7 / 3.
The Springbok forwards continued their onslaught and set up a golden opportunity for Morné Steyn to slot a drop goal, which he duly did… Bokke 10 / 3!
The Irish began to find their feet though, with excellent line-out steals against the Springboks and with sublime cleaning of the ball, over the player on the ground. They defended well and it became difficult for the Springboks to get over the halfway line.
Morné Steyn missed two long range penalties, one dropping under the crossbar and one dropping both under and against the upright.
Jonathan Sexton put a penalty over and suddenly it was Ireland 6 / Bokke 10, there was just a four point margin, this was also the half time score.
After half time the Irish came out fired up, forced mistakes from the Springboks and they conceded penalty after penalty within kicking range, with Sexton slotting them time and again, making it 9 / 10, then 12 / 10 and lastly 15 / 10 for Ireland.
Eventually Morné Steyn was replaced by Ruan Pienaar, who did no better than Morné, having a kick charged down and missing a penalty attempt.
Jean de Villiers replaced Wynand Olivier who had a top game, specially on defence. There was a bit more to the running game with Jean on, but to no avail and at a time when only a try would have won them the game.
Sexton then missed 2 penalties as well….
BJ Botha was replaced in the game, why I’m not sure, but John Smit moved to tight head and Bismarck du Plessis slotted in at hooker. Andries Bekker was replaced as well, with Danie Rossouw moving into the lock position and Dewalt Potgieter earning his first cap.
During the last 8 minutes, the Bokke threw everything at the Irish who defended and defended and kept the Bokke out.
Go rest now Bokke, fix those weary bodies, next year is another big year!
Points:
Ireland: 5 Penalties Jonathan Sexton
Springboks: 1 Conversion & 1 Drop Goal Morné Steyn, 1 Try Schalk Burger
Teams:
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Brian O’Driscoll (captain), 12 Paddy Wallace, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Tomas O’Leary, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O’Connell, 4 Donncha O’Callaghan, 3 John Hayes, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Leo Cullen, 19 Sean O’Brien, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Ronan O’Gara, 22 Gordon D’Arcy
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Danie Rossouw, 7 Schalk Burger, 6 Heinrich Brüssow, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Andries Bekker, 3 BJ Botha, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Tendai Mtawarira.
Replacements: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Jean Deysel, 19 Dewald Potgieter, 20 Francois Hougaard, 21 Ruan Pienaar, 22 Jean de Villiers.
Date: Saturday, 28 November 2009
Time: 16:30 SA Time (14:30 GMT)
Venue: Croke Park, Dublin
Expected weather conditions: There 20 percent chance of rain, with a high of 6°C which is 0°C with the windchill factor, getting colder, and a wind from the north of 28 km/h, freshening to 36 km/h
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant referees: Chris White (England), Carlo Damasco (Italy)
TMO: Hugh Watkins (Wales)
See the changes to the Springboks lineup with the late withdrawal of Bakkies Botha. Andries Bekker now wears the No 4 jersey and Francois Hougaard comes in on the bench.
Oi, Irish win by 5
15 / 10
Congrats Irish
Dam 😥
Very well played the Irish
Ireland 15 South Africa 10
Well, well….
293 – Carol, Kaplan is the best ref. Then Mark Lawrence.
This ref today not that good but that is not only why we lost. It was our very bad kicking at goal that cost us and kicking our ball away evertime we got it.
Okay out of here for now.
Irish Well done to your team mate. They deserved it. We got the try but you got the points on the board and that is what counts.
Irish Devil congrautlations,well done to the Irish Boys…..
Aw well, congrats Irish
Well done Ireland
We cant blame any one for this lose, the Irish were just better on the day.
Congrats Irish…..eishhhh…
Well well guys if a tired team plays like this their is no shame.
Congrats to the Irish.
We will use our time though to show you how one sided the ref blew. a Farking disgrace
Congrats to Ireland. WEll done. We played crap. Deserved to lose.
We need have to get our kicks over. It cost us huge and that hurt us bad. 12 points missed.
@309 – Oh yes you can…
Thanks guys – and thank you for gracing our shores. You guys put up a good fight and the game could have gone any way. Thankfully our kicker had his boots on. I still believe your team is one of the greatest and we are just privaledged to have won the battle. No shame in losing when rugby wins.
Well done to the Irish! My prediction of the Bokke losing 2/3 came true.
311 – Super we all knew that ref was going to blow like that. If we got our kicks over we would have won. No ifs it is there to see. 4 missed penalties cost us. Really can never afford that at international level.
GBS
Sonder Bakkies was ons van die begin af innie kuk, Langbek issie gemaak vir hierdie soort fisiese rugby nie.
En hoekom vir Ruan opbring?
Zane Kirschner was vir my uitstaande.
JPP moet waai, met sy hoogvatte en al.
Ons het die game in die lynstaan verloor, soos ek halftyd voorspel het.
Once again well done Ireland.
Irish I raise my glass to you mate. This one is for your. Well done to your team.
I thought when JdV came on, the game oppened – he is just such a great player. Can’t believe SA don’t choose him. Well done to my Ireland – we don’t win many and when we do we celebrate with our opponents. So lets celebrate.
The best team won, end of story….
314 Irish
Respect to you mate. You are a gracious winner!!
Puma #316 Yes agree, Steyn’s bubble starting to burst the last few games.
Congratulation to the Irish.
@317 – Want Morne was super kak, soos al die NH games die jaar.
Ai man, sou goed gewees het as ons die jaar kon afsluit met ‘n wen…. maar nouja, dis verby en ons het verloor.
@318 Puma – thank you buddy – I can hadly speak I’m so emotional and of course from shouting so much.
Piet, Mapoe just waiting to take JPP’s place.
Bekker never a Bakkies.
Piet it was our goal kicking. That hurt us boet. 12 points missed? We will never ever win games if we kick like that. We should have won it if we had got those kicks over.
Okay now out of here. Cheers all. At least the Tiger Prawns on the braai was awesome…… 😆
Actually it was sad to end the year like this.
Now really out of here.
Irish Devil like i said earlier this week it will be a good game and blaming the kicks of Morne is plain stupid by some South Africans. Your kicker missed just one less if i recall. But the ref was not consistent and thats it. But we got a game or 2 this year in our favor. So my moan is not because we lost but ALL teams suffer from this bad refereeing.
Nee Pietman
Die beste span het verloor! Die span wat die meeste punte aangeteken het het die spesifieke game gewen. Ierland het nog nooit die AllBlacks in New Zealand gewen nie! Ek gaan beslis nie na een of twee verloor games na ‘n moerse jaar vir SARugby nou dink die Iere is beter as ons nie! Morne het ‘n afdag gehad, ons het ‘n 8ste man gemis en JdV moes vroeer opgekom het.
Geluk aan die Iere, maar wel gedaan Bokke!!
I don’t think anyone really knows how difficult it is to play in such conditions. It is freezing cold – visibility so bad and the wind really swirls in the park. Two kicks hit the bar and could have gone over and the Boks could have won by one. Perspective.
You can’t win against Ireland by scoring fckall in the 2nd half.
We had them there,against the ropes, in the first 30 minutes, and then we started losing line-outs and it was game over.
Maybe we concentrated to much on scrumming them….I dunno, but hell this was just a poor 2nd half display by the Boks.
Danie Rossouw was the only forward that stood out in the last half.
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