Donal Lenihan: Bar one decision, it's hard to disagree with Carley's calls

Ireland's biggest problem against South Africa was a failure to get to grips with the destructive power of their scrum. And this was Springbok scrum with Ox Nche. 

Ireland battled heroically against South Africa but this Test was no great advertisement for the sport. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

In attempting to decipher what transpired at the Aviva Stadium on a beautiful autumnal afternoon on Saturday, the words of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey came flooding to mind - "grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented".

With a few months to go before the most difficult of all starts to a Six Nations campaign, an opening contest against the French in Paris, this game against the all conquering South African side amounted to the perfect audit of where Andy Farrell’s Irish team sit right now having dined at the top table for so long.