Boks end seven-year wait for Ireland scalp with victory at Loftus
South Africa's Cheslin Kolbe and Ireland's James Lowe.Â
The Springboks ended a seven-year wait for a win over Ireland with a 27-20 win at Loftus Versfeld leaving Ireland to rue some key moments that went against them.
Ireland were superior at the breakdown with Caelan Doris in vanguard, but it was just not enough to topple the world champions in their backyard.
A controversial score from wing Cheslin Kolbe 15 minutes from time, when it was marginal whether Ireland wing James Lowe’s foot was on the ground as he attempted to keep a Handre Pollard touchfinder in play.
Lowe flipped the ball inside and Kolbe, haring down the line, hacked ahead and scored. After a long deliberation by television match official Ben Whitehouse, the try was given.
It took the score from 13-8 to 20-8, which made the mountain a little too high to climb for the courageous tourists.
Conor Murray scored a try five minutes from the end with the Boks down to 14-men with Kurt-Lee Arendse in the sin bin.
For a moment the chance of victory was resurrected. But from the restart, Lowe fumbled the ball into his in-goal area, the Boks earned a scrum and snuffed out the danger with a massive scrum that led to a penalty try.
Ireland were always going to be up against it given the opponents and the venue, but even they couldn’t have envisaged a worse start.
Bok wing Kurt-Lee Arendse scored in the third minute and any thoughts of keeping the Loftus crowd out of the contest evaporated immediately.
Talk of the Boks’ new approach under attack coach Tony Brown proved to be serious and not just gamesmanship. The opening try was constructed on multiple phases in the build-up with back rowers Pieter-Steph du Toit and Siya Kolisi prominent.
Firstly, Du Toit was put into a sliver of space down the right wing where he carried strongly. The ball was recycled left quickly where Pollard, on halfway, instead of kicking for field position the Boks might have done a year ago, played wide.
Centre Jesse Kriel drew and passed to Kolisi, who fed the ball beautifully to Arendse. The wing still had some work to do, but the Boks’ quick hands had given five metres to work in with 35-metres to the line.
He streaked past Calvin Nash and then shimmied sensationally to round Jamie Osborne for the score. Osborne was barely three minutes into his Test career when he witnessed first-hand the value of space.
The Boks were clearly intent on playing at tempo but from the restart Kwagga Smith fumbled the ball. Ireland won the scrum and spent the better part of the next two minutes pounding the Bok line.
The tourists came close, but two metres from the tryline they spilled the ball under tremendous pressure from the South African defence and the home side could take a breather.
Ireland had their moments as the Boks conceded two quick penalties – one for an accidental offside and another by Ox Nche fror not rolling away.
Ireland could not break down the Bok defence, but they were creating problems. At one stage wing Cheslin Kolbe, against the touchline, somehow launched a 60-metre kick down field.
Jack Crowley did add three points from Nche’s infringement to put the tourists on the board.
The Boks, undeterred, kept playing with width and Pollard added two more penalties to open a healthy 10 point lead. It looked minous for Ireland.
Ireland needed something before the break and they got it with some magic from Dan Sheehan and James Lowe.
After a strong build up, but squeezed into the left hand corner Sheehan behind-the-back pass to Lowe broke the first line of defence. The Boks scrambled but Lowe somehow tip-toed down the line and fed Osborne to score.
It was a crucial score close to halftime and when Pollard missed a long-range penalty on the stroke of halftime it gave Ireland the momentum shift they needed.
The level, especially from the home team dropped in the second half, in the face of Ireland’s relentless efficiency at the breakdown and swarming defence.
Pollard missed two penalties that might have settled nerves and sensing the tension in the home team’s game, Ireland kept up the pressure.
On the hour mark it seemed Ireland had scored a superb try when Lowe sped 60-metres after a breakdown turnover. But TMO Whitehouse ruled that an Irish player had illegally played the ball. Referee Luke Pearce chalked it off.
It was that kind of day for Ireland.
Kurt-Lee Arendse, Cheslin Kolbe, penalty try;Â Handre Pollard (2);Â Pollard (2).
Jamie Osborne, Conor Murray, Ryan Baird;Â Jack Crowley;Â Jack Crowley.
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Handre Pollard (Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu-74), 9 Faf de Klerk (Grant Williams-58), 8 Kwagga Smith, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c) (50-Marco van Staden), 5 Franco Mostert (50-Salmaan Moerat), 4 Eben Etzebeth (RG Snyman-50), 3 Frans Malherbe (Vincent Koch), 50, 2 Bongi Mbonambi (Malcolm Marx-50), 1 Ox Nche (Gerhard Steenekamp-50).
15 Jamie Osborne (Cairan Frawley-50); 14 Calvin Nash, 13 Robbie Henshaw (Garry Ringrose-41), 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe; 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Craig Casey (Vonor Murray-63); 8 Caelan Doris, 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Peter O’Mahony (captain) (Ryan Baird-50); 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Joe McCarthy (James Ryan-50); 3 Tadhg Furlong (Finlay Bealham-63), 2 Dan Sheehan (Ronan Kelleher 41), 1 Andrew Porter (Cian Healy-53).
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