Rassie Erasmus plays down revenge theory after Springboks crush Ireland

Ireland had won three of the last four games against South Africa. 

South Africa's 24-13 victory over Ireland was their first in Dublin since 2012. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Rassie Erasmus dismissed the notion that South Africa’s win over Ireland in Dublin was a type of revenge after the disappointments inflicted on them by the Six Nations side in recent years.

Ireland had won three of the last four, all by narrow margins, and had enjoyed nine wins in the previous 14 meetings going back to 2014. The Springboks had not won in Dublin since 2012, so this was a significant win as Erasmus sipped on a beer post-game.

“It's nice. Any beer is nice after a win, especially against a quality team like Ireland who has totally dominated us since we've been a group together. If you take the [last] five games, they're still 3-2 up against us, so we won't get carried away with this, but yeah the beer is a little bit sweeter and we're just thankful that we could manage to beat them here.

“It's been a long season for our guys. I know a lot of the guys must go to Japan and URC games and so on, but I also know the whole Leinster team, only two not starting from Leinster in that game (sic), they also have to go to URC. So it worked both ways, but we are proud after a long season to grind through a win against a team like them at home, for the first time in 13 or 14 years.” 

It was a crazy game with Ireland conceding 18 penalties and earning five yellow cards, one of them upgraded to a 20-minute red for James Ryan after the first quarter. So many of those penalties came at the scrum where the Boks were totally dominant.

For all the chaos in other areas, this was a very simple case of one team crushing another in the game’s signature setpiece. Two of the yellows came from the scrum, plus a penalty try on the stroke of half-time, but Erasmus didn’t agree that his side was physically dominant.

“I think Ireland were just as physical. To keep us out there off a dominant scrum with the tackles and turnovers that they made inside the 22, they matched us there, so it was physical. I don’t think they came out second best on the physicality.

“Had they scored in the last four minutes then there was a kickoff and the match was on. No, we were dominant in the scrum but all over the game there was dominance from there, in the scraps on the ground, in the breakdown. So certainly not a perfect performance.

“You guys asked us all week about getting a monkey off our back and revenge, and it is not revenge. When you play a team like this you just want to fix something and try and beat them.”