It’s said that you learn more from your defeats. The proof will be in the pudding for Ireland’s players, especially in 10 weeks’ time on the opening night of the Six Nations at Stade de France.
In the meantime, the players go their provincial ways. Sandwiched between four rounds of Champions Cup and Challenge Cup, they’ll even confront each other in the interpro derbies, while Irish scrum coach John Fogarty will burn the midnight oil before the two-week lead-in to confronting the French scrum.
In any event, Tadhg Beirne believes Ireland can learn from the carnage inflicted by the Springboks scrum last Saturday night.
“That’s why these games are so important. We’re going to be able to look at these games and look at what we can do, what we can change in getting to that level,” said Beirne, who was back training with Munster at the University of Limerick on Monday.
READ MORE
“It’s safe to say South Africa are the standard bearers in the scrums and have been throughout the Autumn Nations and the Rugby Championship.
“They’re the gold standard in terms of that area. It’s great to get to play them. It’s great to be able to review that footage now going into the Six Nations and figure out what we can do to improve and fix up.”
Beirne was packing down in the secondrow of a scrum that went backwards at the first put-in. Thereafter, it felt the brunt of the Springboks after the seismic impact of losing tighthead lock James Ryan.
“We’re just trying to fix things on the go as well out there,” Beirne admitted. “In fairness to them, they were able to get a second shunt on us every time.
Saturday Shambles wraps up Ireland's November window
“We weren’t managing with that as well as we would have liked. Towards the end, we fixed up a few things. We started to look a bit better in that area as well. Their drill is very, very good. Our drill is very, very good as well. They just had the upper hand in that area.
“We’ll fix that up and we’ll go back to the drawing board. We have to get better because, as I said, they’re the standard that everyone’s going to be chasing.”
There’s no doubt that Ryan’s 20-minute red card was the moment he and Ireland would most like to have back, for it also ruled out Beirne’s finish. It would have been interesting to see how the game might have panned out with Ireland 7-5 ahead and 15 v 15.
“We got back to halfway and we looked up and saw they were reviewing. Unfortunately, these things happen in rugby. Gutted for James. Hopefully, he’ll go back and get that review and we’ll see what happens.”
“That’s the way the game is going in these decisions. Some go for you, some go against you. You get the timing a split-second wrong and you could be in the bin or have a red card for 20 minutes.
“You just have to deal with it and get on with it. We did our best to do that, but discipline around the park probably let us down and gave them access.”
Beirne is well placed to comment on such matters. His yellow card against New Zealand in Chicago was upgraded to red and subsequently rescinded by a disciplinary panel.
“I don’t want to comment on it really,” he said. “I don’t envy them at all because it’s a very difficult position to be in. Something can look really bad in slow-mo, but it is what it is. They’re doing their best out there and that’s all we can ask.”
Despite last Saturday’s home defeat compounding the bruising beating by France in Dublin last March, Beirne believes the team will take “a lot of belief” from the character shown against South Africa.
“It felt like if we could have kept 15 on the field, we would have been right in that game and maybe able to turn them over,” he said. “From our first game of the series to that game, it’s been huge steps every game.
“I think we’ll certainly be going out to the Six Nations with big belief. If we can fix up a few of those things we were talking about earlier, then we’ll put ourselves rightly in it.”
