Ronan O'Gara: They smile at Ireland in that pat-on-the-head sort of way
WORLD CUP CYCLES: I come around to asking the same question – are the IRFU digging deep enough on this conundrum? It warrants a serious deep dive into how our World Cup cycles can be better. It hasn’t worked so far. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
GOT A grumpy flight home from Toulon to La Rochelle on Saturday to catch the last half an hour of South Africa’s test rugby clinic at the Stade de France. An exhibition in showcasing the importance of the 23-man game teed up by the XV who started softening up the ground and the opposition.
This was textbook stuff. Coming off a Top 14 defeat in Toulon that had moments of appeal and promise offset by inconsistency and falloff, the Springboks were balm for the tormented soul. The worry for everyone watching France-South Africa was had the game continued for another half an hour, the margin was only getting wider. And the ones landing the debilitating blows were playing a man down. As an exercise in alpha male oneupmanship, it doesn’t come with a bigger exclamation mark.
A theme I have played on myself is having total confidence in the man next to you. Right now, South Africa are the embodiment of that. They – and more significantly, the opposition – feel that if it’s a tight game, the Springboks are going to get over the line somehow some way. In a game of chaos, brutality and insane heart rates, that is a special zen state to be in.
It is often argued, inaccurately, that until the time Tony Browne joined the management, South Africa played a limited attack game. Now they swim in both ends of the pool comfortably, with a range of ringmasters to manage and direct their offence - Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Handre Pollard and Mannie Libbock. They have a production factory of props and indeed front fives, from Bakkies Botha to Victor Matfield to the ones walking in their footprints knowing they have to be an eight out of ten every game. Pieter Steph du Toit barely merits mention now but the former world player of the year is the personification of exceptionalism. And he never dips below eight out of ten in any test match.
The awareness is acute: you will get a gimme from Rassie and the boys for one 80 minutes, but if you repeat it, good night and god bless, Kolisi being a good example. On the night of his 100th cap, the captain gave of himself in a way that is everything Rassie preaches about a player sacrificing the personal for the collective. About being the best and leading by example at the stuff that takes no talent.
Other notable noticeables: the Edinburgh prop Boan Venter was flagging after half an hour and was replaced. I’ve done it myself - this is not so much the loneliness at the top for the head coach but more the man in total control of all the chess pieces. i.e Erasmus. Thirty minutes flat out in a test match is the equivalent of 40 minutes in a club game. The suspect get found out.
In mitigation for the hosts, it was no more than half a French team. The XV they didn’t select would give the team that Galthie did start a right run for their money. Mauvaka, Antonio, Wardi, Baille, Alldritt, Meafou, Ollivon, Cros, Dupont, Jalibert, Moefana et al. What that brought home, watching the other games at the weekend and looking at the selection for this third series of games, is that unquestionably South Africa and France have the greatest breadth of options in the world game at the moment.
Saturday at Twickenham will be interesting. There are broadening options at Steve Borthwick's disposal, and the All Blacks, for all the late Scotland flurry, were scoreboard dominant for the majority of the piece at Murrayfield. Confirmation halfway through November that you have South Africa, then France, then New Zealand and after that, a step down to the chasing pack. Many are on Ireland’s back at the minute, but would you fancy England to beat Ireland this month? Would it be venue-dependent? Probably. And yet Ireland are seen as being in a funk, while England are seen in a progressive phase.
South Africa at the Aviva on Saturday week will be a brutal game, a fascinating 80 of tactical awareness, a proven mindset versus an Ireland team trying to reinvent themselves.
Once again there was next to nothing in the Japan win to get us out of our seats. The rhythm, the tempo, the cohesion, the capacity to play together just looks off at the minute. I liked what Andrew Goodman suggested in the week, that is always the coaching dilemma, when you see something Monday to Friday but you don’t see it Saturday. That is the coaching rubik cube.
First Australia. After losing to Italy, no one is sure whether or what version of the Wallabies will show up in Dublin on Saturday night at the tail end of their long season. They have a massive dilemma around the number ten jersey that no other major test nation has to deal with at the moment. Joe Schmidt and his successor-in-waiting Less Kiss have very slim pickings around the mythical jersey. World Cup hopes in 2027 rest predominantly on whether they can satisfactorily fill that hole because there has been exceptional rugby at times in 2025 – not least in overturning a 22-0 deficit away to South Africa and blanking them for the remaining 62 minutes to win 38-22 in Johannesburg last August in the Rugby Championship.
Unbelievable that. So Ireland have to prepare properly in the top six inches but coming off a defeat to Italy, those Wallaby players now face Ireland, then France before Bondi Beach calls. They’re professionals and led by the embodiment of same in Joe Schmidt, but it’s an ask. If they think Dublin will be tough, wait for the following week.
For Andy Farrell and Ireland, the opposition can change but the challenge remains constant - building squad depth. Four professional teams remains a core part of it, of course. But the connection, the mood music just seems off at the minute.
This is dangerous territory for me, but I see parallels between La Rochelle and Ireland. Asking so many guys – and too often the same guys - to achieve the same objective by going deeper in the well time and again. Another ask, another month where we have to be at our best – done Leinster, done Ireland, done the Lions, but let’s go again? Are their juices flowing?
I saw it as a coach here in La Rochelle - you win Europe, you win it again and then after a player’s mindset can shift to a dangerous place – I just have to show up here. It’s so different to that, the mental preparation for test rugby is different to club, but in either, when you lose a little bit of appetite, it spreads out of control very quickly.
In Andy Farrell’s world, all the games are nearly high pressure so when and how do you blood the talented kids? If the goal is to win the Rugby World Cup, people have to recalibrate their expectations and soak up the short term pain that would seem inevitable. That’s where you need a coach with plenty of credit in the bank, and Ireland have that.
The only thing of real concern to the IRFU should be the next World Cup. We have always peaked between the World Cups, so any chance we try something different? There are so many different strands to interrogate in this conversation, but I come around to asking the same question – are the IRFU digging deep enough on this conundrum. It warrants a serious deep dive into how our cycles can be better. It hasn’t worked. When you are based outside the country and the conversation comes around to the World Cup, everyone is smiling at Ireland, in a patronising way.
Never beyond a quarter-final? The serial under-achievers.
