HAMMERINGS OF ROMANIA aren’t the games by which World Cups are remembered, but even against the weakest team in the tournament, South Africa offered a snapshot of what’s coming Ireland’s way at the Stade de France this Saturday.
It was striking that the much-changed Springboks were still so violent in their collisions, even when they simply didn’t need to be.
There was no discernible drop-off in their defensive effort: Bongi Mbonambi and crew still absolutely hammered off the line against an attack that they would have been able to soak up and smother in their sleep.
The very nature of South Africa’s 76-0 success in Bordeaux was an illustration of the standards set by Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus, a glimpse into this team’s DNA.
Thinking back to the Chasing the Sun series which documented South Africa’s World Cup success in Japan four years ago, Rassie gave one particularly memorable quote ahead of the Springboks’ quarter-final against the electrifying tournament hosts: “They want to take us to the dance floor,” Erasmus said of Japan, “and we want to take them to the gutters.”
His and Nienaber’s intentions against Ireland will be the same as it is every time they name a team: to blow their opposition off the field.
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It’s very tough to top the South Africans’ physicality, but it’s absolutely paramount that Ireland match it this weekend so that they can impose their own attacking shape.
Strip it back and, for all of its tactical complexities and sometimes convoluted laws, rugby is a simple game: whoever is going forward more will probably win.
As such, if Ireland can gain an equal footing with South Africa up front… well, then we’ll have a ball-game.
But if Andy Farrell’s side find themselves on the backfoot from set-piece, from maul in particular, and if we see Damian de Allende running straight at Johnny Sexton and winning the gain-line, Saturday could be a long day at the office.
To zoom in further through an Irish lens, whoever plays in my old position — and it should be Josh van der Flier — is going to be crucial in slowing the Boks’ advances.
Whenever it came to games like this one, all I could think about as an openside was endless work.
And against a pack like South Africa’s, you need to be ready to sacrifice your body.
Yes, it sounds horrible. Yes, I absolutely loved it.
My aim was simply to get involved in as much of the scrappy work as I could, to try to be as big a nuisance to the opposition as was humanly possible.
At ruck time, even if you don’t win the ball, don’t let them have it easy.
‘Double efforts’: make a tackle, back to your feet, make a mess of the ruck.
The way I thought of the breakdown was that if the opposition had to deploy a couple more bodies to whack me, it meant I was buying time for my defence: ultimately, every attacker committed to a ruck is an attacker missing from their line.
It was about being that guy that you know you’d hate to play against.
Ireland have a player who is one of the best in the world at being that guy: Van der Flier.
Josh is fitter than I was. He definitely has a bigger engine than I ever had.
He was last year’s World Player of the Year for a reason and, while his performances might have dropped off by a percentage or two in recent months, Josh at full throttle is exactly the kind of player Ireland need if they are to beat South Africa.
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It struck me while watching Fiji’s Levani Botia have his way with Australia at the breakdown on Sunday that the La Rochelle man may well be the best openside on the planet — at the moment, anyway.
What’s interesting is that Botia and Josh are such different types of players.
Botia gets a seriously high yield off fewer game involvements. He’s a beast of a jackal threat, a big-moment player.
Josh wouldn’t be as potent in a one-off scenario but, at his best, he has so many involvements, he can have a similar impact on the outcome of a game.
On a good day, he can lead a team statistically across tackles, carries and breakdown entries. He’s capable of producing a body of work that very few athletes would have the physical capacity to achieve.
That’s what makes Josh such a top-level seven: his ability to remain a thorn in the opposition’s side for 80 minutes.
Against the Boks, you might not get any reward from 95% of rucks but there will be a 5% window — and you’ve got to be there. Josh will nearly always be first on the scene. On Saturday, he’ll need to be.
On the other side of the ball, then, it’s crucial that Ireland play their own game.
South Africa’s defence is one of the very best in the world but, equally, we know that Ireland’s multi-layered attack is good enough to break anyone down.
One of Ireland’s primary strengths is retaining possession and working teams through the phases. Such high ball-in-play time will take its toll on big South African bodies at a late stage in the game.
Granted, the Boks will introduce their Bomb Squad, and a really strong bench generally, in the second half. But there will still be tired legs, tired minds, and games of this magnitude tend to hinge on one or two lapses in concentration.
Watching back Ireland’s victory over South Africa in November, it was striking to see the influence of a jinking Jamison Gibson-Park off the bench, and the extent to which he made a few South Africans look heavy-footed.
Gibson-Park was instrumental to Mack Hansen’s score, the brilliant execution of which ultimately determined the 19-16 result in Ireland’s favour.
Saturday will again come down to such margins.
Whenever I think back to my own involvement in games like these, I’m struck by the extent to which defence was the primary focus. It was nearly always a case of, ‘Who’s going to crack first?’
Ultimately, there will probably be only a couple of opportunities for either side to crack open the other at the Stade de France.
Ireland simply have to take those chances.
Ideally, they’ll be able to build scoreboard pressure and force South Africa to have to claw back a deficit. Only then will the Boks have to deviate from the relative comfort of their gameplan.
I never got to play against South Africa during my career and, while we know what’s coming our way this weekend — and we equally know how difficult it is to stop — I envy the Ireland lads who’ll be out there.
The biggest game of the World Cup so far, France-New Zealand notwithstanding. Millions watching at home and around the rugby world.
For me, when it came to games like this, it wasn’t even a conscious decision that I had to go out and play well. It was just about being totally in service to the team. No matter how bashed up you were afterwards, getting the win would always make it worthwhile.
I’ll be in Paris to cheer them on, and I believe this Ireland team are ready to get that win.
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