Ireland 32 South Africa 15: Rewind eight years. The tour to South Africa in the summer of 1998. Certainly not the "tour from hell" - if only because there were plenty of stronger contenders for that dubious distinction - but when watching Ireland lose the Battle of Pretoria 33-0, if you'd imagined campaigns like last season and days like this, the white coat wouldn't have been an optional extra.
Toward the end of that second Test in 1998, the then Boks captain, Gary Teichmann, caught the mood of the sneering home crowd when repeatedly pointing to the scoreboard in his continuing run-ins with his Irish counterpart, Paddy Johns.
That moment came to mind when Paul O'Connell returned the compliment to Albert van den Berg in the heat of Saturday's only dust-up late on.
Back then, in the latter throes of the grim days also known as the Naughty Nineties for Irish rugby (was it really only the last decade?) and even as recently as the visit in 2004, physically it was never an even contest.
But here we even had the sight of Irish players bouncing off would-be Boks tacklers, notably O'Connell bumping the great white hope of South African rugby, Pierre Spies, out of his way. Just as startling was the sight of Irish players, shoulders on knees, using their superior rucking technique to clear out quick ball for Peter Stringer.
Unsurprisingly, with dervishes like Denis Leamy - another fine game from this exceptional all-round footballer - David Wallace and the two centres, they were better equipped to get to the breakdown and compete there against opponents lacking an out-and-out openside. Their counterrucking was also eye-catching. Neil Best and Donncha O'Callaghan worked voraciously, driving hard through the gate to unsettle the ponderous Boks.
Given the Irish pack were competing on an equal footing in the setpieces, it was their work at the breakdown that gave them clear superiority and enabled their classier backs to flourish. Quite a feather in their caps.
Talking to some of the Irish players afterwards, they were still struck by the sheer size of these Springboks, but it is a far more equal contest now, in the collisions and at the breakdown. More talented, experienced and cohesive in the backs, they simply picked the Boks' blitz defence apart.
Admittedly, by shooting up alone in his converted outside-centre role, Bryan Habana left more holes than a soup strainer - tailor-made for the dancing feet of Gordon D'Arcy and Brian O'Driscoll.
Looking superbly prepared for this, Ronan O'Gara - at the peak of his powers this season - had options galore and varied his game deftly. The use of the two powerhouses on the wings, Andrew Trimble and Shane Horgan, as supplementary midfielders was exceptional.
Trimble, buoyed by his early try, had his best game in an Irish shirt, and superbly executed scores by David Wallace and Marcus Horan provided lessons in how to beat a rush defence.
The cohesion and confidence this Irish team brought to bear on Saturday didn't happen by accident or overnight. As Jake White, the Boks' coach, was again at pains to stress in the aftermath, it is the product of careful husbandry and player management, to which can be added the winning habits of the provinces as well as the national team, notably Munster in the Heineken European Cup.
As important a spell in this game as any of the four tries Ireland skilfully concocted was the sustained spell of pressure on their line at 15-3 in the second quarter. Their defensive maul, fringe defence and scrum all took the best the Boks could throw at them and emerged unscathed when O'Driscoll, as is the great man's wont, stepped into the trenches when Leamy held up Spies at the base and earned a relieving penalty for not releasing.
In times past, they would assuredly have buckled, but oddly - despite the obvious intensity of the Boks' mauls, close-in drives and scrum - you didn't feel they would here. In addition to his work in the tight, special mention is due the underappreciated John Hayes, for whom the term Pillar One in defence could almost have been coined.
The one reality check would be the opposition; Saturday's remodelled Boks were undercooked individually and collectively and will bear little relation to their first-choice team come the World Cup. In truth, this Irish team should be capable of this kind of convincing victory.
Viewed in that context, arguably, White has learnt more about his potential World Cup squad than O'Sullivan did on Saturday, although the negatives far outweighed the positives.
Aside from Habana failing to convince as an outside centre defensively, few of the other fringe candidates did much to enhance their reputations.
As White maintained afterward, in a somewhat forlorn attempt to convince his own media and public, it's one thing shining in the domestic bliss of the Currie Cup on hard grounds, quite another to do so in the windier climes and softer pitches of the Northern Hemisphere.
And this is his last chance to expose some inexperienced players to European conditions before the World Cup.
White cited his number eight Spies as the classic case in point. The hugely rated 21-year-old fell off about three first-up tackles, but saved at least a couple of tries with his covering tackles - notably a brilliant corner-flagging effort to deny Trimble after D'Arcy had worked Horgan around the blitz defence and O'Driscoll had linked on the loop.
Danie Rossouw, having made the initial incision with cutback angle like an express train, created their first try with a basketball-style offload for Francois Steyn. The latter - a 21-year-old outhalf-cum-occasional-fullback - looked a very talented and polished performer in an unfamiliar winger's role on his debut.
There was also confirmation of Habana's finishing ability, and at 25-15 there was an annoyance that the Boks had been allowed to get back within 10 points, for this was never a 10-point game.
The Irish players clearly felt just as peeved, and, with the hallmark of the seriously good side they are becoming, responded by scoring within 52 seconds; Girvan Dempsey counterattacking brilliantly and O'Driscoll putting Horgan over from O'Gara's excellent flat, cut-out pass with a Carlos Spencer-type one-handed offload that had to be seen in slow motion to be fully appreciated.
But don't try that at home, kids. Only special players can do it.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: A Pretorius pen 0-3; 6: Trimble try, O'Gara con 7-3; 21: O'Gara pen 10-3; 24: D Wallace try 15-3; 39: Horan try, O'Gara con 22-3 (half-time 22-3); 65: Steyn try 22-8; 73: O'Gara pen 25-8; 75: Habana try, A Pretorius con 25-15; 76: Horgan try, O'Gara con 32-15.
IRELAND: G Dempsey (Leinster); S Horgan (Leinster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster, captain), G D'Arcy (Leinster), A Trimble (Ulster); R O'Gara (Munster), P Stringer (Munster); M Horan (Munster), R Best (Ulster), J Hayes (Munster); D O'Callaghan (Munster), P O'Connell (Munster); N Best (Ulster), D Wallace (Munster), D Leamy (Munster). Replacements: S Easterby (Llanelli) for N Best (61 mins); B Young (Ulster) for Horan, G Murphy (Leicester) for Trimble (both 67 mins); I Boss (Ulster) for Stringer (75 mins); F Sheahan (Munster) for R Best, M O'Kelly (Leinster) for O'Connell, P Wallace (Ulster) for O'Gara (all 79 mins).
SOUTH AFRICA: B Fortuin (Cheetahs); J Pretorius (Lions), B Habana (Bulls), J de Villiers (Stormers), F Steyn (Sharks); A Pretorius (Cats), R Januarie (Cats); L Sephaka (Cats), J Smit (Sharks, capt), CJ van der Linde (Cheetahs); J Ackerman (Sharks), A van den Berg (Sharks); D Rossouw (Cheetahs), J Smith (Cheetahs), P Spies (Bulls). Replacements: R Pienaar (Sharks) for Januarie (4-9 mins); BJ Botha (Sharks) for Sephaka (41 mins); J Muller (Sharks) for Ackerman (53 mins); J Cronje (Bulls) for Rossouw, W Olivier (Bulls) for Pretorius (both 73 mins). Unused: C Ralepelle (Bulls), JB Pietersen (Sharks).
Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand).
