Rory Keane reports from Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
SIX POINTS PROVED to be the difference once more in Port Elizabeth, just as it was in the thrilling encounters in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Ireland failed to secure an historic 2-1 series victory against the Springboks by the finest of margins at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium as the home side repelled a late onslaught from the visitors.
Arriving into this evening’s press conference, Joe Schmidt wore the look of a man who had seen his squad squander a chance to make history.
“I’m massively disappointed,” said Schmidt following his side’s 19-13 defeat.
“It’s 12 years since we’ve been in this country. To grab the opportunity last week, to have it in our hands and to be pick-pocketed the way we were with a superb South African comeback and then today to have so much energy into a game after a 52-week season is testament to the fortitude of the players, but when you don’t get what you’re looking for, you’re always going to be disappointed particularly when it was such a fine margin at the end of it.”
Schmidt’s side showed plenty of endeavour with ball in hand throughout the contest with the young centre paring of Stuart Olding and Luke Marshall causing the Boks defence all sorts of problems.
Marshall finished off a great move to give Ireland an early lead but Ireland then blew two try-scoring opportunities either side of the break that would prove crucial to tonight’s outcome.
First, Marshall failed to find Keith Earls with a final pass after he had scythed through the Boks defence during the first-half before Paddy Jackson’s looping pass to Andrew Trimble was plucked out of the air by Faf de Klerk with Irish players lining up to score after the break.
“We showed a bit of inexperience to be honest, a few times,” said the Kiwi.
“What could have happened, what might have happened is something that those players will have learned. I think that there’s a 14-point swing just before half-time when we make a great break up the pitch, we’re one pass away from putting Keith Earls away and the pass isn’t efficiently delivered and we miss the opportunity with the forward pass.
“Faf de Klerk leaping to get that ball, there’s not too many people around him and with a little bit of patience we could have made the most of that opportunity.
“The maul at that time was still upright and potentially could have kept going, I thought it was a great option to swing back and attack that short side with good numbers but you’ve got to be clinical, you’ve got to be efficient in your execution, because in a Test match you don’t get too many invitations.
“We got a couple of nice invites tonight that we didn’t turn up for.”
Willie le Roux was lucky to escape with just a yellow card after the Boks fly-half took out Tiernan O’Halloran in the air early in the contest.
Referee Glen Jackson sent le Roux to the sin-bin following the incident which left O’Halloran requiring a Head Injury Assessment and eventually saw him replaced at half-time.
Having seen his side reduced to 14 men at Ellis Park in the opening Test for a similar incident, Schmidt refused to be drawn on Jackson’s decision:
“Look, I don’t really make comments on those incidents, other people deal with them and I probably would still say we were disappointed with CJ’s red card in the first game but I haven’t got any comment to offer really on the incident this evening.”
When this Ireland squad board their plane back to Dublin tomorrow, they will reflect on a series that got away.
There are plenty of positives for Schmidt and Co. to take into next season; the emergence of Paddy Jackson and Tadhg Furlong as long-term options at fly-half and tighthead respectively, Devin Toner’s leadership, the rejuvenation of Jordi Murphy and the promise of Luke Marshall, to name but a few.
The odds were firmly stacked against Ireland during this arduous three-Test series, but they we still feel that they could have achieved something special here.
“Look, not taking anything away from the Springboks at all, but sometimes you feel that you just don’t get what you deserve for the amount of effort you put into it. When another team are putting in the equal effort and they manage to keep you out, it’s always disappointing,” Schmidt concluded.
“The thing that was most disappointing for us was that we contributed to our own downfall, just a couple of skill execution things and that one-score game swings in our favour and that’s how close we came and that’s probably even more frustrating than if we hadn’t got that close but the only thing is a victory and that’s what we were after but I still have to say that I’m incredibly proud of the work ethic.
“With a team that became a little bit jumbled when Tiernan [O’Halloran] played on but was pretty much hampered and once we got to half-time we knew we couldn’t continue.
“Keith Earls, he hasn’t played a lot at full-back and we really were in a little bit of disarray I suppose at times but fighting our way through that, you’re still incredibly proud of the effort that the players put in, particularly I felt we were flat after Jo’burg, Monday and Tuesday a little bit, but Thursday you could see the life start to come back into the team and it wasn’t for a lack of effort, that’s for sure.
“When you’re coaching, you want perfection but you’ve always to take a bit of pride in the work ethic that’s delivered by your players.”
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