‘We were booed off and I think we deserved it’

South Africa’s try-scoring lock Pieter-Steph du Toit accepted the boos as the Springboks left the Ellis Park field trailing 19-3 to Ireland at half-time.

And he used the anger they left him feeling to prove his compatriots wrong in a blistering second-half fightback. Springbok supporters in Johannesburg on Saturday had been non-plussed at their team’s sorry first-half showing in the second Test as the sloppy errors that cost them the series opener in Cape Town seven days previously came back to haunt Allister Coetzee’s side again in the Highveld. “At half-time we were booed off and I think we deserved it,” du Toit said.

“In the second-half we showed what we can do when we start to play and hopefully when we play next weekend we can start with that feeling and not disappoint ourselves or the fans as well. The crowd got behind us in the second-half.