Considering all the hoopla surrounding this match, with it being the first international rugby contest in the new stadium, with it being a repeat of last year’s epic showdown in Croke Park, with it being a match we were favourites to win given the comparative injury counts, the final scoreline really smarts for Irish fans.
And to make matters worse, for me anyway, it was a different kind of smarts, or more a lack of them, that led to the outcome.
No disrespect is meant to the South Africans with the tone of this post, but in my view, they won because they took what we gave them.
Much is being made about how they owned us in the lineout. I’m sorry…but is that really so much of a surprise with a second row pairing of Matfield & Botha? I wouldn’t be quick to criticise that particular failure, except perhaps the omission from the matchday squad of proven poacher Leo Cullen.
What I did find baffling re: lineouts is that it took us 60 minutes to realise that the only way we could make progress down the field was to KEEP THE BALL ON THE PARK. Right from the very kickoff Sexton drop kicked it all the way into the Boks 22, allowing them to clear, create a lineout, which we may have won but sloppily so and before long the Springboks were on the front foot and never looked back.
Our experience should have taught us to keep things simple and be patient. Yet after another messy lineout win on 16 minutes, Eoin Reddan thought it best to fling the ball blindly while facing the wrong way rather than secure easy possession and regroup. Juan Smith saw it as an early Christmas present, and shame on George Hook for criticising Kearney’s tackling so harshly – he made a hell of an effort to get there and only had one shot at the rampaging flanker’s legs when he did.
So there was seven points that never should have happened. I argue that their second try, though avoidable, was one you’d expect to give up to a team of South Africa’s stature whatever their injury count, so in the final analysis, the way I see it anyway, we lost this match in the first quarter, and the finger of blame has to be directed at the coaching staff & senior players for the tactical preparation.
In American football, they have what’s called an “audible”. The play is determined in the huddle, but if the quarterback sees the defence lined up in a way that threatens the plan, he changes it just before he takes the snap. This is where we went wrong…the teeming rain was always going to make an expansive passing game risky and the policy should have been abandoned if not before kickoff then surely before halftime.
Second half didn’t start much better. Sexton did a couple of impressive kicks into the opposition 22, but what did they lead to? Lineouts. We needed possession, not position.
I sincerely hope the Leinster outhalf didn’t take it personally when he was replaced on 67 minutes, for even if it was pre-determined as Kidney suggested afterwards, the team needed a reboot, and Stringer and O’Gara were definitely the way to go, and they clearly made a difference.
However…I seem to remember having a “lucky bounce of the ball” pointed out to me with Rob Kearney’s match-winning try in Thomond Park last April. Well, the same player relied on similar luck together with a goof from Aplon to get our second try, and at the risk of sounding partisan, the same goes for Tommy Bowe’s touchdown six minutes earlier.
Brilliant idea for ROG to chip it into that spot? Yes, it was just what was required. Brilliant finish from the Ospreys man? Yes, it was just what we expect from arguably the best winger on the planet right now. But there was an element of luck nonetheless in between, and when you factor in the amount of substitutions made by coach deVilliers by then, the closeness of the final scoreline totally flattered us.
But should we as Irish fans despair? Hell no!
Sure, we got it wrong, but I feel we need to cling to BODs post-match excuses for comfort, not so much the weather-related one though.
He admits they got the prep wrong, and he claims they’ll play better with games under their belt. Don’t forget…the only match that really matters down the line is on September 17, 2011 in Eden Park when we face Australia in our second Pool C match. We’ll have had 5 games played in the weeks before then, so the preparation and squad cohesion should be A1.
Perhaps the “three out of four” hopes for this Autumn International series may be gone, but there’s still plenty of cause for optimism, so whatever we may feel about the IRFU on ticket prices, empty seats and rip-off jerseys (all debatable topics in their own right but none belonging in a post-match write up in my view), we as Irish fans should give the players the benefit of the doubt and get behind them for the battles to come.
I for one still believe we have the smarts in our squad to give these Boks a run for their money in a World Cup quarterfinal.
