Brilliant Ireland hold off late Springboks comeback

The Springboks asked every question of Ireland.

Time and time again Andy Farrell's side found the answers.

The best thing about this Irish win was the amount of things that went wrong.

In the first 40 minutes they came up against a relentless South African defence that made every tackle and read and played the game on their own terms; territory and possession. But they didn’t panic.

Their bench was tested, and passed with flying colours. Stuart McCloskey, Conor Murray and Tadhg Furlong all succumbed to injuries in an incredibly physical contest. Jamison Gibson-Park changed the game when he came on while Finlay Bealham gave arguably his best showing in an Ireland jersey, right in the centre of a dominant Irish scrum.

While South Africa were winning individual collisions, Ireland’s forwards – as a unit – were immense, particularly with how they shut down the Springbok maul.

Level at 6-6 after a tense first 40 minutes of chess, Ireland struck for two tries early in the second half from Josh van der Flier and Mack Hansen, the second a result of a brilliant counter-attack, which had been instigated by Caelan Doris.

And although Johnny Sexton’s conversions were off target, a penalty seven minutes from time proved to be enough for the win, despite the best efforts of the world champions who had fought back with tries from Franco Mostert and Kurt-Lee Arendse.

The clock had barely hit 60 seconds before Sexton was presented with the easiest of opportunities to kick Ireland in front. A Murray box-kick up the centre of the pitch was brilliantly fielded by Garry Ringrose, and after Steven Kitshoff failed to roll away, it gave the Ireland captain a tap-over penalty, which he converted to make it 3-0.

A mistake off the restart instantly put