International view: Ireland lay down a real marker

The country is waking up this morning in excited form.

Last night the two top ranked teams in the world went to war in Paris and it was Ireland who emerged victorious after an epic struggle with South Africa.

What does it mean for our hopes of a first ever World Cup title? Well, we're likely to avoid in-form hosts France in the quarter-finals, and instead have a probable meeting with three-time champions New Zealand to look forward to.

The two times the teams met in the competition the All Blacks won by 24 points and 32 points respectively, but this time it feels a bit different, right?

Before all that, of course, we've Scotland in Paris to get over on Saturday week.

But back to last night, what was the international view of a low-scoring but highly enjoyable game at Saint Dennis?

Battle lost but War goes on

South African media was echoing the views of the Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber, when he spoke after the game.

"The Springboks have lost a battle but the Rugby World Cup war is far from over following a night of epic drama in the seething cauldron of the sold-out Stade de France in Paris last night," Mike Greenaway wrote in the Independent Online.

"The Boks were far too charitable in their inability to cash in on their scoring opportunities," he continued before adding, "They [Ireland] ought to have scored much more [in the first half] but their conversion rate of opportunities was poor.

There was some solace for Greenaway as he concluded that, "The Boks will lick their wounds learn their lessons and take heart from the fact that in 2019 they lost a pool game before recovering to take the title."

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