Murray Kinsella Reports from uMhlanga

SUNDAY EVENING BROUGHT lots of bad news from Ireland camp on the injury front, so Monday afternoon at the Springboks’ team hotel was a contrast.

Andy Farrell’s men have lost Dan Sheehan and Craig Casey ahead of the second Test in Durban, while Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Jamie Osborne, Andrew Porter, and James Lowe all suffered injuries in Pretoria last weekend.

The Boks, meanwhile, don’t appear to have any injury concerns. 

That was the report from their base on the seaside in uMhlanga, a laidback resort town just north of Durban. With a picturesque view of the waves rolling calmly into shore from the Indian Ocean and the sound of the palm trees swaying in the wind, the Boks’ five-star hotel was a scene of peace and calm.

Across the road is a string of beachside restaurants and cafés, and there’s also the 2.5 kilometre promenade, ideal spots for rugby players with time to kill. 

Ireland aren’t by the seaside, instead setting up about 25 minutes walk inland, just around the corner from a gigantic mall known as the Gateway Theatre of Shopping. Ireland welcomed two new faces into camp yesterday as Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan and Ulster scrum-half Nathan Doak arrived to replace Sheehan and Casey. They were also getting the latest assessments on the other walking wounded.

Given that hooker and scrum-half are such specialist positions, Ireland couldn’t risk leaving themselves with only two options in a Test match week so reinforcements were required even though Andy Farrell had brought a 35-man squad to South Africa.

uMhlanga is very different to the hustle and bustle of Johannesburg and Pretoria, the respective bases for Ireland and South Africa ahead of the first Test. Its name means ‘place of reeds’ in the Zulu language after the reeds in the nearby Ohlanga River. We’re still getting to grips with the pronunciation but the ‘hl’ part of uMhlanga seems to be somewhere between a shl and kl.

The lighthouse at uMhlanga. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

We have a few days to get the hang of it before Saturday’s game in the Kings Park Stadium, about a 15-minute drive south towards the city centre of Durban.

As Farrell quickly moved to stress on Saturday night after the first Test defeat, it’s important for Ireland not to feel sorry for themselves and lick their wounds this week. With the injury woes in the final week of a year-long season, it would be easy to do that. The deterrent for letting that kind of negative mindset seep in is the prospect of a chastening night at the Springboks’ hands if Ireland don’t turn up with big energy.

Rassie Erasmus’ men appear to be invigorated by their broadened attacking style under new attack coach Tony Brown, while their high levels of motivation to settle the score with Ireland were obvious last weekend. They believe they can improve in the second Test and will be determined to send Ireland home with a 2-0 series defeat. 

While lots of their players are involved in the URC now, there’s also a core of Japan-based players – Pieter-Steph du Toit, Faf de Klerk, Damian de Allende, Jesse Kriel, Cheslin Kolbe, Kwagga Smith, Franco Mostert, and Malcolm Marx – who arguably haven’t gone through the same emotional and physical tests that others in this series have this season. 

Ireland did some excellent things in the first Test but there were also moments where their focus and application lulled notably. The opening Springboks try was one, while the lapses for the other two South African scores were also on the list. There were blips at the lineout, scrum, and in attack too. That’s the case in any game of rugby but Farrell needs his men to be far less error-prone if they’re to win the second Test.

He is now down a good chunk of his first-choice team, with Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen, and Dan Sheehan all sidelined, while key bench impact man Jack Conan is also absent. It remains to be seen if anyone else fails to recover from their injury issues for the second Test.

We know that Farrell is a master of framing things positively, though, and the absentees mean others have opportunities. In fairness, Casey and Osborne took theirs in the first Test until injury forced them off. So with more changes on the way this week, Farrell will be backing the fresh faces to bring punch.

The whalebone pier in uMhlanga. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The unused players in the first Test would obviously love the chance to bring that impact. Rob Herring and Caolin Blade look set to come into the matchday 23, while Tom O’Toole, Oli Jager, Cormac Izuchukwu, Cian Prendergast, Nick Timoney, Sam Prendergast, Stuart McCloskey, Jimmy O’Brien, Jordan Larmour, and Jacob Stockdale make up a talented group.

There obviously isn’t space for all of them and Farrell will be cognisant of not making too many changes while factoring in the injury-enforced alterations, but his matchday 23 might benefit from a dollop of reinvigoration.

The reality is that winning a Test against the Springboks on South African soil would be a major achievement for Farrell and his players. It’s a big prize on offer and Ireland will need a big performance to pull it off.