McCarthy says there are positives to work on after ‘battling’ display

In a parallel universe somewhere, Ireland won that Test match on Saturday night and Mike McCarthy’s brutal hit on Springbok lock Eben Etzebeth just after half-time is being played on the loop on a triumphal highlights reel.

Here, closer to home, it’s impact has been softened considerably by a fifth straight Test defeat and it was a loss where early momentum was squandered and Declan Kidney’s side failed to score for the last 50 minutes.

Same old story, really.

Some good, some bad but, in the end, not enough of the former. Encouraging displays from novices like McCarthy, who blindsided the new poster boy among the South African forwards, can only stretch so far by way of compensation.

“Like you said, I blindsided him and anyone could have done it but I really enjoyed every minute of it out there,” said man of the match McCarthy.

“You’re never satisfied when you lose but there are positives to take out of it and to work on. We went into the lead against the third-ranked team in the world and we could have been more up at half-time. The lads battled and fought hard and you couldn’t fault the commitment.

“The negatives are that we would feel we took our foot off the pedal. We felt that we needed that first score after half-time so we will have to have a look at that.”

That and much more besides.

Simon Zebo, another relative rookie who made a mark, spoke of silly errors and how they had all “let the side down” but every Irish player scratched their head when asked to pin down exactly how or why such a commanding position had been blown.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “They’re a good side, they know how to squeeze teams and put the muscle on — play how they want to play with their forward pack dominating and stuff like that. Those bruising runners off the ten and off nine.

“It is as if they slow down the game a little and then sucked us into doing that as well when we have the ball and not playing the way we did in the first half, which was territory, and just getting ball wide and just running hard. It just seems we got sucked into a dead game of rugby.”

That’s as good a summation as any. Ireland were squeezed into submission until their eyeballs popped. The temptation is to speculate if the presence of men like Brian O’Driscoll, Paul O’Connell and Rory Best could have prevented it.

“I thought we had some great leaders on the field in Jamie [Heaslip] and Jonny [Sexton] and [Keith] Earls,” Zebo added. “They know exactly how to play and where to play.”

Tommy Bowe, another of the more experienced heads on duty, admitted it was an opportunity lost but found solace in the performances of the less familiar faces and insisted the negatives are not consistent with the positivity running through the squad.

“There is a confidence there,” said Bowe. “There’s a lot of talk about a lot of players being missing but I think the last two weeks have been as intense and impressive period with the Ireland squad than I’ve ever been. I felt going into this game we were going to show that and I think in the first half we did.

“We played with a bit of accuracy and intensity and, unfortunately, we let that slip a little bit in the second half which is something we’re going to have to address. But I think the mood in the camp would be good coming in [today] once we get over that. I’m looking forward to the next two games.”