Focused Irish hope to build on Boks victory
Ireland flanker Neil Best, withdrawn in the 61st minute because, as coach Eddie O’Sullivan said, he “had put in a ton of work”, attempted to compare what they faced in the summer Down Under to what turned up at a blustery Lansdowne Road on Saturday.
“I’m not so sure if making comparisons is the right thing to be doing right now, but all I can say that it possibly was harder to go to New Zealand than to play at home. I wouldn’t say the opposition on Saturday was weaker — they (South Africa) are much stronger than most world rugby sides.
“However, I would say that our performance levels are getting better and better. In the summer, although we lost the three tests, they were good performances. We performed well on Saturday and hopefully we’ll perform well against Australia.”
It’s a good sign when Irish teams are expected to beat teams like South Africa. At the final whistle there was barely an audible version of the Lansdowne Roar’ before the 41,000 attendance quickly departed the Dublin 4 venue.
Compare that reaction to the joyous response to O’Sullivan’s first antipodean scalp in 2002, when Ireland overcame Australia 18-9 in the pouring rain.
“You can’t be patting yourself on the back after beating South Africa,” added Best, who won his sixth cap on Saturday.
“There are another two games to go and maybe after those games if we do well you can start looking back with satisfaction. Maybe then the public and the press and everyone around may think we’re a good team as we progress forward to the Six Nations and the World Cup.”
One of the big pluses on the Irish side was their workrate at the breakdown, and their ability to win ball on the ground against a bigger South African pack.
“The onus is on us to make a decision whether to go in to get the ball,” said Best.
“More often than not we made the right decision. And when you go in, you got to end up getting the ball because that obviously has defenders down in your side. You’ve got to win the ball or else you’re in trouble out wide, and our decision at the breakdown is very good.
“The South Africans were contesting very well at the breakdown, but I think we matched them. In some instances we were better than them. I’ve said it many times in the press — these guys are a lot taller and a lot quicker. Determination counts for a lot and we’re a very determined group to win the collisions at the breakdown and we did that.”
Best’s back row colleague David Wallace, who scored a 24th minute try, was pleased with Ireland’s continuity game and, as Best said, Ireland’s ability to win ball at the break-down was crucial in Ireland’s new multi-phases game.
“I was pretty happy to get my hands on plenty of ball,” said Wallace.
“It’s hard to know what way these games go. Sometimes they fall your way, sometimes they don’t. I got a good bit of ball, our backs played brilliantly and that helped us to create good ruck ball and continuous play.
“Even if we weren’t turning it over, I think we were competing well and slowing it down — legally!” he adds with a cheeky smile. “However, we won’t get too carried away with ourselves at this stage. If you look back over the game, we let in two softish tries and we’ll have to look at that.”
For the first time in his career Wallace, who won his 31st cap against the Springboks, was part of an Ireland team to beat one of the top three in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Munster flanker wasn’t there in 2002 (v Australia) or two year’s later when Ireland’s turned over the Springboks 17-12.
“I missed out on the last time we played them. It was hard watching that and not being a part of it, so it was brilliant to be a part of it this time. I’m delighted especially at beating one of the Tri-Nations teams.”
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