Farrell Hails Bok Scrum As World Class
Ireland coach Andy Farrell described Saturday night’s game against the Rugby World Cup champions, South Africa, as unlike anything he has seen before, as they lost their first game in 13 years to the Rugby Championship winners in Dublin.
The Springboks beat the team now ranked fourth in the world, 24-13, in a game that took a duration of two hours to complete. The chaotic first half itself lasted for a staggering 58 minutes.
In his description of what was witnessed, Farrell said, “A mad game – I don’t think I’d seen anything like that before, and I’ve seen a few things.”
Rassie Erasmus’ men battered the Irish with the sort of physical dominance akin to a World War as the onslaught was on show for the world to see. With the Irish struggling to match the Springboks’ brute force and physicality, several infringements were caused, resulting in an array of penalties and cards.
“There were seven scrum penalties, and that is what they have done to many teams. They are world-class scrummers. Their defensive lineouts are very good, and they put pressure on us there.”
Ireland finished the first half with just 12 players on the field. James Ryan’s yellow card was upgraded to a 20-man red card while Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter, and Paddy McCarthy were all sent to the sin-bin as the Irish perished in the face of Bok brutality.
While South Africa scored four tries, one being a penalty try as a result of unrelenting pressure from the scrum, the other three were wonderfully worked and finished by Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach, and the prodigious Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
The Reinach and Feinberg-Mngomezulu tries in particular saw each player take advantage of gaps in the Irish defensive line with incisive runs as Ireland looked somewhat disorganised.
Farrell acknowledged this, “The tries we gave away were on the inside shoulder or missing a tackle, so those are things we could fix.”
Farrell did take away positives from the game, expressing how proud he was of the fight shown by his team despite the pressure they faced.
“The overriding feeling for me is I am unbelievably proud of the players – going down to 12 men, and to come out with a second half score of 6-5. It’s still a loss, which is disappointing, but the feeling is pride in the boys,” he said, “We managed to stay in the game and had the fight to keep them out.”
Farrell stopped short of offering the Boks the same praise at the end when they kept Ireland out, as it seemed they would score, stating that his team got ‘desperate.’
The Springboks withstood the late Irish attack to add to their victories over France in Paris and Italy in Turin during the Autumn Nations Series.
The Rugby World Cup Champions play their final game of the international season next week against Wales with a more depleted squad as the game falls outside World Rugby’s Test window.
