THERE WAS NO public outpouring of jubilation from Ireland last night, no raucous celebration of a win over the reigning world champions.
The Irish reaction at the final whistle and post-match seemed to highlight that they just see this 19-16 win over the Springboks as a step along their journey towards something bigger and better.
And yet, there was pride about the performance that Andy Farrell’s side delivered. The Ireland head coach felt it allowed him to learn even more about his team.
He saw the likes of Hugo Keenan and Jamison Gibson-Park, who hadn’t played since the summer tour of New Zealand, being hugely influential. Farrell saw how a massive squad of more than 50 players had pitched in together over the past week. He loved how Jimmy O’Brien stepped up from the A team to make such an impressive debut off the bench. He saw how his Irish pack went head-first into a huge scrum and maul battle with the Boks.
“We’ve got resilience, guts, character,” said Farrell. “We wanted the test, we wanted the different type of Test match that was a proper old-fashioned slinging match. We wanted to see where we are at in that regard. I thought the character of the side was immense for all sorts of reasons.
“You start coming into camp and a lot of them being underdone as far as minutes are concerned and this being our first game of the season – it’s some of the lads’ first game of the season and others haven’t played for three or four weeks. They come into camp every single time and get to work and they certainly fill me with confidence every time.
“You would think that Hugo and Jamison had been playing for the last five or six weeks and that’s because of the culture, the attitude, the want to get better time and again that is infectious day in and day out with this squad. I thought we showed fantastic spirit.
“Having said that, South Africa are a hell of a side and it could have gone either way so the character that we showed was fitting for the 12 days that we have had together and with the injuries that we had – one or two before the match and the Ireland A game made for a different ten days for us and something we adapted to. I’m unbelievably proud of them in how they applied themselves.
“In the first half, we gave them a few opportunities to kick to the corner regarding our discipline but the confidence we got as a forward pack from our maul defence stood to us for the game and our set-piece was unbelievable. Coming out of that, our defence was immense. The backs complemented the forwards in that as well.
“It was a proper Test match either way. If the result had gone against us I would have felt the same way.”
Among the impressive Irish replacements was Connacht tighthead Finlay Bealham, who came on at half time for Tadhg Furlong.
It was a seamless transition as Bealham helped Ireland to three scrum penalties in the second half.
“He was awesome,” said Farrell. “Tadhg was awesome the time he was on, Andrew Porter was immense, Dan Sheehan as well. Finlay coming on, he has grown in confidence every single time he has come on the field at international level.
“I thought his scrum was excellent, he was nice and dynamic, nice and low, and never looked like budging. We’re delighted for him and he’s growing in confidence week by week.”
And while so much of it went well, Farrell very much led the relaxed vibe post-match. He wasn’t looking to highlight this as a mental blow to the Boks ahead of next year’s World Cup pool game between the sides.
“We’re miles off it,” said Farrell. “There are so many things, different permutations that can happen along the way. I’ve no doubt that South Africa are going to get better leading into the World Cup, they’re pretty good at getting their timing right.
“It’s a good start to our season, that’s about it. It’s nice to play them after five years, to see our hand, and how we handle the different types of pressure they throw at us. That’s great, it’s the start of our season and we move on to next week.”
Next weekend is a clash with Fiji and Farrell seems certain to make hefty changes to his team.
He confirmed that Furlong suffered an ankle injury, centurion Conor Murray picked up a groin issue, and Stuart McCloskey sustained an arm injury that might not be too serious.
”Stu is a funny one. He fell awkwardly on the floor and his arm twisted in a way and he thought something serious had happened, but it doesn’t look as serious at this moment in time. There’s a bit of feeling that’s coming back into his arm and hand. We’ll see how that progress, we don’t quite know.”
As ever with Farrell, it’s onto the next job.
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