RUGBY:COURAGE AND the stubbornness of a proud rugby nation returning home were the bread crumbs tossed Ireland's way by the Springboks coach Peter de Villiers and captain Victor Matfield in the wake of Saturday's contest. "Every win is important to exorcise the ghosts of the Tri-Nations," said De Villiers. "We always knew that coming down here was going to be tough. Maybe we gave up too early but, then again, to pull it through is a great achievement for us."
De Villiers never gets an easy ride in press conferences. The suggestion here was the removal of Morne Steyn, replaced by 20-year-old debutant Patrick Lambie on the hour mark, assisted the Ireland fightback. Was Steyn injured or was it tactical? “It was a tactical decision,” De Villiers responded, thereby setting himself up to be questioned further on the issue. When a South African journalist begins with “respectfully”, there is a good chance the remainder of the query will probe De Villier’s tactical competency.
The Ireland revival did tie in neatly with the withdrawal of Steyn and former Munster centre Jean de Villiers (who carried an injury into the game). But de Villiers defended the substitutions, crediting Ronan O’Gara as the main reason for the late Irish revival. “The one substitution that really worked against us was when O’Gara came on. He took the game to us and caused us havoc.”
Despite the change in the breakdown rules lessening the importance of first-phase attack off set-plays, weather conditions put an increased value on scrums and lineouts. With so many South African props earning a living in Irish provinces it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see the scrum so badly exposed. Tendai Mtawarira dominated Tony Buckley from the very first Ireland scrum, reminding all of the similar demolition job “The Beast” performed on Phil Vickery in the first Lions Test last year.
The lineout was the area where Ireland hurt the world champions 12 months ago; Paul O’Connell and Gert Smals cleverly colluding to knife holes in the majesty of Matfield’s usual aerial supremacy. The great South African lock was seeking revenge for this slight, having done plenty of video analysis on Mick O’Driscoll’s attempts to compensate for O’Connell’s established brilliance out of touch.
“It helped I had an extra two weeks off from the Currie Cup so I could do a little bit more homework than normal. It paid off. We need to stay sharp. We never must be caught like we were last year.”
Matfield previously identified O’Connell as the toughest opponent he has ever faced so he was not complaining about the advantage gained by his continued absence. “Ya, we all know how class Paul O’Connell is. It made it much easier for myself. He is a star player. Any time you lose a guy like that it must be tough, especially in running the lineout. He knows how to run a lineout. Definitely it makes it easier. It was nice to not see him against me today.”
There were some ugly incidents, particularly Jannie du Plessis’ hand making contact with David Wallace’s eye area on 13 minutes (something the citing commissioner may examine). “Every time you put that jersey on it is a Springbok team,” said Matfield. “It doesn’t matter if people write you down or up. You are a Springbok team and you need to go and perform. They are a proud Irish team. They showed that by the way they came back but luckily the guys showed the character. It came through in the end.”
