Epic performance from Ireland! Superlative alert!

 

 Mathieu Raynal

Well, while I said I thought we’d beat the Springboks, I didn’t think we’d do it with 14 men. In fact, when Stander was red carded, I thought the game and maybe the series was gone. I hope Pat Lambie’s OK, no malice from Stander, he was trying so hard to impress, and it was unfortunate more than anything else. But in terms of giving up this is Jo Schmidt’s Ireland, they have full confidence in their strengths and abilities, and there’s no lack of character is there? Amazingly, even with 14 we did it easily enough, a gift of a try to the Boks put a polish on their performance that really wasn’t there. One of our best matches ever, and our first away win over the Boks.

So many superlatives for what we did, guys like Jackson, Marshall and Payne at full back really put their hands up – I can do this, I belong here! From Twitter, I believe Trimble is nailed on to start at 6. Jack McGrath led the tackle count with 17, and Henderson was a work horse too, and how good is Murray?

South Africa look like a team in transition, lots of new combinations, and the players not all on the same page. But they’ll be back with a vengeance!

Have to mention the U20’s for their epic win over the Baby Blacks!

At Eden Park, Wales really took the game to the All Blacks in the first half but really fell away in the second half. I don’t know if that was fitness, but there was no hiding place once New Zealand got going.

And in Brisbane, England finished off Australia in some style – they had the Aussies number, the tactics, the power, the defensive system that made the result nearly inevitable.

Finally, just a word on refereeing. So New Zealand and Wales get Wayne Barnes, Australia and England get Roman Poite, so South Africa v Ireland must have had an equivalent level of ref – Nigel Owens? Chris Pollock? Jérôme Garcès? Pascal Gaüzère? No, we got Mathieu Raynal , who I’d have struggled to recognise before this match. I guess a lot of the elite refs are Irish or South African, but we didn’t seem to get the ref the match deserved. And what is it with French refs, away from home they’re so ready with the cards, meanwhile at home in the Top 14, players are getting murdered, getting their heads ripped off, and the ref is just going Joué Joué!

New Zealand 39 – 21 Wales    
Australia 28 – 39 England    
South Africa 20 – 26 Ireland