Ireland put the boot in
Jonathan Sexton kicked five penalties to clinch a 15-10 victory for Ireland in Dublin.
The wind wasn’t a factor at Croke Park but the 1 degree-temperature was always going to test a Springbok side that’s endured everything and more in 2009. They responded admirably, delivering a brutal display at scrum time and at the breakdown that gave those South Africans freezing in the cheap seats something to celebrate. Those who had put forth fatigue and the loss of Bakkies Botha as contributors to a Bok downfall must have been disappointed.
Surprisingly, it was at the lineout that the Boks struggled. The influence of Gert Smal, who just two years ago was working with John Smit and Victor Matfield, was patent as the Irish disrupted the Bok feed regularly. If not for the Boks’ dominance in other areas and the visitors’ heroic defence, Ireland may have led at half-time.
The Boks had to wait until the 12th minute for the first scrum, and it was something to behold. BJ Botha smashed opposite number Cian Healy and was well supported by the rest of the Bok pack, who rumbled forward and won several penalties on attacking ball.
Ireland flyhalf Sexton opened the scoring with a ninth-minute penalty, but it was the Boks, who were starved for both territory and possession, that scored the first and only try. From a scrum penalty, the Boks tapped quickly and looked to have butchered an opportunity before sending the ball back to the point of origin. Fourie du Preez, who had another splendid evening with the boot, showcased his invaluable vision by freeing up Jaque Fourie, who held up the pass for an unstoppable Schalk Burger to score. The man the Irish love to boo after the infamous eye-gouging incident hoofed the ball into the crowd after grounding the try.
Morne Steyn missed a few penalty punts to touch, but did some good things during the first half. He converted Burger’s try and slotted a drop goal to extend the visitors’ lead to 10-3 after 24 minutes.
But the scoreline didn’t tell the story. South Africa resisted a couple of Irish surges thanks to the defensive feats of Burger, Danie Rossouw and Wynand Olivier. Heinrich Brussow also obliged with some steals off his own line. Declan Kidney must have been fuming, while the South African coaches would have been breathing a collective sigh of relief.
Sexton narrowed the deficit to 10-6 on the 30-minute mark while the Bok flyhalf fluffed three successive penalty-attempts. Steyn failed to reach the poles twice at the end of the first half, and pushed another shot wide early in the second. On the whole, South Africa were outkicked by Sexton and Ireland’s phenomenal jack-of-all trades, Rob Kearney.
Another true strike by Sexton and errant tactical probe by Steyn, and you could sense a change in momentum. The dense fog that had threatened to settle since kickoff descended, but the crowd ignored the chill and expressed themselves through Gaelic song.
Andries Bekker was fortunate to escape a yellow card in the 51st minute when he dropped his knee onto the shoulder of an Irish player, but Sexton punished the Boks on the scoreboard. At 12-10, Ireland were in the lead.
The Boks defended bravely but continued to lose badly in the possession and territory stakes. Rossouw was caught after fielding a high ball, and it was South Africa’s good fortune that Sexton pushed the ensuing penalty shot wide.
Steyn was substituted for Ruan Pienaar on the hour, and Botha was also pulled from the front row. The first Bok scrum after the substitution saw the visitors shoved backwards, and the next breakdown resulted in a penalty for Ireland. The locals literally began dancing as Sexton bisected the uprights.
The five-point lead was substantial given South Africa’s battle to retain possession in opposition territory. You couldn’t see them mounting an assault on the Irish line in the time remaining, and with the kickers battling to find their radar, they couldn’t close the gap via penalties. Pienaar could do no better when asked to kick for goal, his attempt bouncing off the post.
Cruelly, for the green and gold faithful, the Boks did manage to get painstakingly close in last minute, but a magnificent Irish spot tackle killed the movement and the match.
The result renders the Boks’ tour a miserable failure with the most recent loss coming after defeats to Leicester, France and Saracens. It has been a long year, but none of the senior Boks will look back at November 2009 with any fond memories.
By Jon Cardinelli, in Dublin
November 28th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Well done Ireland you deserved it,
If anyone wants a laugh i dont no if you guys in SA saw the BBC interview PDV prematch but what a load of rubbish he was spouting ” how the boks are undisputed champions of the world” he should be locked up before any games
November 28th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Kick and run Boks are up to ****
November 28th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
ja the boks were awefull all they can do is kick and chase it was the most boring display of rugby i have ever seen just awefull another loss this year
November 28th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Embarrassing performance. They made Ireland look very good today and really need to get their priorities straight next tour. If players are tired they shouldn’t be playing.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
@west:
Lol PDV should be locked up permanently
Boks have NO game plan
November 28th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
@Boksarenumber2: yeah teams with such a limited gameplan usually come unstuck after a year of not trying to change it. Teams finally work it out and then they have got nothing else to offer, such a shame when you have quality outwide such as Habana , fourie and you chose to kick kick kick
November 28th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
We kicked away too much ball on Kearney, who was brilliant. Also missed too many kicks at goal. Scrum was dominant with Smit at hooker and average when he moved to prop. In the end, we lost this game through poor kicking.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
ja boks need a new game plan
November 28th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
@Boksarenumber2: watch it if you can the women reporter just doesnt no how to answer his riddles , she asked about “how much a loss botha would be” and he came back with a riddle about life and looking forward in your life than looking backwards!!! I think he is getting worse
November 28th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Ireland victory fair and square, but in the context of the greater picture, it’s no train smash!!
Lots for the coaches and selectors to work with, and after the 2010 S14, CC, and EOYT we will be much the wiser as to our chances for the WC in NZ 2011
November 28th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Im afraid the writing was on the wall.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
The world champs just choked again, when your favorites and lose its a choke isn’t it?
November 28th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Most useless performance I’ve seen from a bok team in a long time
Get rid of the cancer and start again.
Half back axis is where we got sweet f’all zero idea whatsoever. Been screaming into the ether that this useless kick and chase rubbish going to sink us and so it has every game this tour.
FdP, useless
M. Steyn – useless
drop them both
Smit – hang up your boots now before any more damage ensues
Matfield – barely hangs in
Roussouw – out
But the cancer in our rugby starts at 9 & 10, get shot of these w@nkrs and start again. All the way back to the beginning
New captain
New Scrum half and fly half
Start again or expect more of the same kak boring useless losing rubbish.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Boks missed Koning Adi (Danie Gerber)
November 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
France will win because nh rugby is simply stronger. If you go back to my previous comments in October you will find i predicted this.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
SKOPSKIET,
Who would you replace Smit, Matfield and FDP with?
Enlighten me.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Pieter gets a b plus for 2009.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Lol, alot of people predictably begining to deride the Boks, but in fairness, they have had a magic year!!
So the Irish won a match at home in really terrible weather…
How many times have Ireland gotten past the QF in any WC, and how many tests have Ireland won against SA overall.
This tour started poorly, and ended average!!!
We al know the reasons, bring on the 2011 season!!
November 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Kick the kicking to the kerb. Boks have no variation in play. They should have taken this one no doubt. But if you only start running the ball in the 78th minute, what do you expect? Once again substitutions were poor – taking off Botha reversed the scrums and killed the momentum. A combination of fatigue and foolishness. Pity
November 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
@Wezwp:
So strong they haven’t breached the AB try line in countless games.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Morne Steyn is an overrated one trick pony,with Ruan on the field we had an attacking edge.The scrum is only one facet of the game and we dominated it but we were still clobbered.I’d rather we win with a retreating scrum than lose with a scrum that’s going forwad.Scrum dominance is overrated.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
It irritates me that the national coachescan’t make commin sense decisions, i.e. if Frans Steyn played today, he would have been able to land those long penatly goals and we would have won. No brainer….
November 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
As a middle-aged Springbok supporter it hurts like hell to see our boys lose to a tiny nation like Ireland. Oh well, the glory days of the Boks of old remains to be cherished.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
@Cheetah 4 Eva:
Isn’t that the third victory in a row for Ireland over the Bokke?
November 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
What I dont understand is the constant up-and-under tactic – it didnt come close to working and was aptly summed up when Schalk threw his arms up in despair when Pienaar did it…and this was the man who was supposed to come on and get the backline moving. I think we looked quite dangerous with the ball in hand though – thats when it was in hand however and not somewhere up in the farking heavens with mist on it!!
November 28th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
yeah but the irish and french are a cut above the rest. Nz’s defence was breached at home to france this year when they played at home.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
would it be wrong of me to complain about the ref at all?
November 28th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Again, **** Muir earns his money.
Do you think attacking skills practice is something like this:
Player: Coach what have you got planned for attacking practice today?
DM: Well we are going to see if we can improve our hang time of our kicks & practice 30m sprints so we can be near to the ball when it lands.
Player: What no moves, skip passes, inside flips, scissors, angles & stuff like that.
DM: Huh?
November 28th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I hope the all blacks win to salvage some pride.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
ANDREWBK,
Yes, we are not English. Ref never played the game, the Boks did!
November 28th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Calm down guys. We were awful sure. End of year tour. Rubbish money business. Have some perspective.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
ja u really cant blame the ref he doesnt just kick and chase
November 28th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
@NZINCHINA: Yup, 3rd in a row over 5 year, which includes the infamous win in Dublin.
All games have been in Ireland at the end of the SH season though.
Excuse? Yup I will take it.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Come 2011 the southern h. will make their “stem dik”.
November 28th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
irish just wanted it more in the end. boks played a good first half though. seem too tired in the second period.
well done to them. close chapter and move on!
November 28th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
We need a good “kop-dokter”. We are poor when we play away from home. A dangerous thing has happened now. Sides like Ireland and France now believe they are the favourites when playing at home against the Boks. This is going to make future tours even tougher.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
proooooooooooooooovvvvvvvviiiiinnnnncccceeee!!!!!!!
November 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
@NZINCHINA: Jip it sure is, no denying it!! And apart from the try scored whilst the Boks backs were turned deservedly so!!
So where does it put Ireland?? We all know that the SH nations use the tours for experiments, and sometimes they fail!
Ireland were good today, no doubt!! Rhetorical question, would this Ireland side have won the Tri Nations???
Home field, cold wet, they played well. All I am saying is the Boks have achieved much in 2009… it was a great year!
November 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
MAMPARA73,
I would not say that they wanted it more, I would say that they were better coached, played the conditions better, came out with the right tactics, adapted to the game plan better.
All round, they had a much better coaching team.
Man for man, the Boks are superior players in almost every position. Why else are we loosing? Our tactics, selection and game plan was poor – all coaching errors…AGAIN!
November 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Start again get shot of these twats the lot of these overrated kop toe idiots.
M.Steyn gets shown up by a rookie who at least runs it once in awhile.
between FdP and M.Steyn is exactly where the cancer in our rugby is, been saying it awhile already. get rid of those two and see a whole new lease of life.
This kick and chase sh’t was bound to come a cropper and so it has. Pity South African twat *** idiots take a couple ice ages before they realize wtf they doing killing the game stone vrek dead.
Smit – hang up your boots – klaar gelag – ous – go rest on your multitude of laurels
Matfield just about hang in there – just by the skin of yuour finger nails
Burger – passe
Roussouw – passe
CJ – klaar gelag – fini
Future bok team and get going with it now or watch this overrated bunch of palookas go all the way down the drain clutching yesterdays straws.
Vd Merwe, Beast, Blaauw
Liebenberg, Du Plessis, Strauss, Maku
BJ, WP Nel, K.Buys, W. Kruger
Bekker, Steenkamp, Sykes,
Matfield, Hargreaves, Lombard,
Brussow, Potgieter, Watson (c)
Louw, Deysel, Smith, Burger
Vermeulen, Spies, Alberts
S. Pretorius, Hougaardt,
Pienaar, Grant, JL Potgieter,
Habana, Nokwe
M.Steyn, WO, JdV
Fourie, De Jongh,
JPP, Mapoe
F.Steyn, Viljoen, Kirchner
November 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Let these guys wallow in their end of year wins. False sense of their powers.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
@AndrewBK: It always smacks of sour grapes but I thought he was pretty one sided on the 50/50 calls. I do think he controlled the game excellently, but did let a lot of Irish things slide & was super critical of the SA players.
Having said that, we did not help ourselves, Bekker & JP probably deserve to be cited after game.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
well done ireland!
thouroughly deserved victory against a bok side that seemed to have no direction.
kick and chase all night long and when they kept ball in hand, they looked dangerous finally, but too little too late.
we won the scrums but lost the game. is everyone happy now with props who just scrum but cant make a cover tackle?
i am not.
anyways, when is the nz france game chaps?
November 28th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
I reckon this gives us a good chance to duck below the radar now, take the pressure off and come back when it really counts stronger and better than before. im sure not one of those players wanted to lose and did all they could to win. nobody wants to lose to NH teams, especially not to the whinging Irish. but lose they did and now they have to moe forward
November 28th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
skopskiet you are a chop.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Bet ya this will be the same game plan the bok coaches will use next year.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
maybe, but this is the tactic that pumped you wallabie…time and time again.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
@BULLET: good point, i’ll restrain myself.
@The Bill: yes also good point…
November 28th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
@Koos van der merwe:
Ruan hasn’t got 2 brain cells in his head
November 28th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
@rangerman:
21.30 kudusmous…