– Rory Keane reports from Ellis Park, Johannesburg
SOUTH AFRICA DELIVERED an “onslaught” that Ireland simply couldn’t match in the final quarter of their heartbreaking defeat at Ellis Park, according to Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt.
Ireland established a 19-3 half-time lead thanks to a well-worked try from Devin Toner and the nerveless goal-kicking of Paddy Jackson.
Schmidt’s men lead 26-10 with barely 20 minutes remaining thanks to Jamie Heaslip’s try from close-range after substitute winger Ruan Combrinck had crossed for the Boks.
But, then it all fell apart for the visitors as replacement flanker Warren Whiteley, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende blasted through the Irish defence to secure a stunning comeback victory.
“Yeah, they delivered an onslaught that we didn’t quite match up to,” said Schmidt following his side’s 32-26 defeat in Johannesburg.
“We missed tackles, we felt a little bit unlucky at times when we weren’t able to make tackles. Again, we’ll probably have a second look at that and we can send a report through but that’s not going to change the result and the result is well and truly earned by the South African ball carriers.
“They really did take it to us and we weren’t quite up the task and that’s incredibly disappointing after being 26-10 ahead within that last quarter and 19-3 up at half-time.
“We probably just missed a kick just before and after half-time which could have kept our confidence levels up and maybe delivered a little bit more of a blow to the South African team but the way they came back, they were relatively irrepressible.”
Despite the crushing disappointment of seeing his side give up a 16-point lead with a historic series victory in their grasp, the Kiwi saw plenty of positives from the game none more so than the performances of Tadhg Furlong, Quinn Roux and Stuart Olding:
“I think they are some positives for us. I thought Tadhg Furlong was great. It was an opportunity for Tadhg to demonstrate what he was capable of doing and I think everybody probably saw what he did. He did a super job for us. I thought Quinn Roux gave us 50 minutes of real ballast to the scrum, he got around the park, and he made sure that we weren’t losing those collisions.
“Some of those guys who came in [like] Stuart Olding, his first three tackles were really decisive and allowed us to make sure that we could set our defensive line either of him in that tackle area. That’s really satisfying in the sense that we’re trying to build a squad but at the same time we’re incredibly disappointed with the end result.”
A battered and bruised Irish squad will leave for Port Elizabeth tomorrow morning as Schmidt looks to prepare his troops for a series decider at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium next Saturday.
Considering the mental and physical toll of this hugely physical encounter, it is highly likely that Schmidt will rotate his squad again with the likes of Luke Marshall, CJ Stander and Ultan Dillane set to come into the equation for the third and final Test.
Robbie Henshaw could be a doubt for the series finale after the Leinster-bound centre was helped off the field late on with a knee injury.
“It’s probably going to take about 48 hours to be honest,” said Schmidt’s on the health of his squad.
“There’s certainly plenty of fatigue there. Obviously, Robbie Henshaw copped a knock in the knee. It’s a little bit inflamed so it’s going to take probably 24 hours for the swelling to go down before we can get a decent look at it. We’ll just see how that goes.
“A few of the other guys were getting cramp which is obviously a temporary thing but it’s something we’ll want to try to avoid in next week’s Test.”
It will take time for this squad to recover from such a traumatic defeat, but there is a still a series and a shot at history on the line next weekend.
“The players are certainly disappointed,” added Schmidt.
“They’re fairly tired in that changing room. Whenever you get the win and get the result, it’s always a lot easier to bounce back even it’s a physically tiring match.
“It’ll take us a couple of days probably mentally to get over the anguish of surrendering the lead we had and at the same time trying to work our way back to being fit enough to train fully and build towards next weekend’s Test match.”
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