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'South Africa, on their day, would have pumped this All Black team'
By Ian Cameron
Former Ireland winger Shane Horgan believes South Africa would have pumped the New Zealand side that beat Ireland 23-13 in the Aviva Stadium last night.
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Ireland’s 19-match winning streak in Dublin was snapped by Scott Robertson’s All Blacks, marking another disappointment following last year’s narrow Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat. A try from Will Jordan and six penalties from Damian McKenzie were enough in an attritional match where Ireland struggled to find their rhythm thanks to mistake upon mistake from Andy Farrell’s men.
Speaking on Virgin Media Sports in Ireland, Horgan said his former side will need to up their game if they want to consistently beat top-level sides like South Africa and New Zealand, suggesting that maybe an expectation of victory may have played a part in the loss.
“It was a missed opportunity. Ireland were poor across the board,” said Horgan. “There were some sparks of life in defence, but generally, poor passing, inside shoulder balls, balls on the deck, too many knock-ons. They played in the wrong areas of the field and couldn’t retain possession.”
“You’re right,” he continued, “this isn’t a particularly brilliant iteration of the All Blacks. South Africa, on their day, would have pumped this All Black team tonight, and that’s the disappointing thing. Ireland are meant to be the number one team in the world, and they looked a long, long way from it today.”
“I think it demonstrates that there’s maybe only two, maybe three teams in the world at the moment that Ireland can’t play in neutral and beat,” said Horgan. “There’s a lot of games in the Six Nations where Ireland aren’t great, but they get over the line, and that’s the quality of the opposition.
“But you play New Zealand, you play South Africa, and consistently, you have to deliver a really tight, high-end performance. No matter what sort of iteration of New Zealand or South Africa it is, you just have to, because they play at a different level.
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“At some point, you have to be able to say, ‘We are a top-quality team.’ We’ve just beaten South Africa in South Africa—the world champions and world number one by a long way. We’re playing at home; we should beat this opposition. So, I think it’s legitimate to say we were confident going into this game.
“I don’t think there’s a lack of respect, and I don’t necessarily think there’s an overconfidence. I just think they didn’t deliver a performance, and if you don’t deliver, you’re not going to beat New Zealand.”
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Lol. Keep hearing how rubbish this ABs side is from the teams that just get beaten by them. Hope we continue to be so rubbish
Ireland have beaten Boks in 4 of previous 5 Tests and looked the better team in SA. They were poor vs ABs and may have peaked. Their next Test vs Argies now looks more interesting, Pumas looking strong. ABs weakness was a substandard bench and poor 4thQ. Its now a strength with Tuipolotu and Tosi adding serious beef. ABs building.
Who cares what this nobody thinks. We won. Ireland lost.
Horgan is right, hell 2022 Ireland would have pumped the AB and Ireland yesterday, there attack was just out of this world. I was bemoaning the fact that the AB's werent pumping Ireland.
He's got a short memory though, the Irish turned over more ball in the first test against South Africa. I saw a good video on the Irish broadcasters TNT youtube with I think the two Irish commentators and they were very level headed and worried that this wasn't even a good AB performance even though there players dominated them in nearly all facets.
Let's face it the score flattered the Irish. Their try should not have been awarded. Cane was tackled in the field of play and quickly forced his knee to the ground. The tacklers never released him and forced him back over the line. Penalty NZL! The decision to give the Irish a scrum was diabolical. Thankfully we won't have the same match officials when our Wannabes take the Clurichauns on.
Didn't even think of it that way.
Click bait from Shane who still hasnt gotten over the loss - so hes just got to go there to find comfort - allow me to administer you a sedative - Ireland are not as good as you think they are - now just wait a moment for that to take affect - see it works - and heres some candy to suck on - NZ arent that flash either - if you dont accept that reality check your going to have pain for the rest of the year and next until you beat SA or NZ again - thats the nature of the beast - will SA losing to Scotland & NZ losing to France next week help with ya recovery - back up to # 1 - your've already thought of that havent you - I would put my money on that and save yourself a miserable 12 months
The guy couldn't pump a goat properly
Another complete non-sequitur from an Irish commentator. He admits that South Africa and NZ play on a different level, then says that South Africa, who beat NZ twice this year by small margins when playing at home, would pump the All Blacks?
More relevantly, are the Irish rugby media the new English rugby media? Endless blathering, endless braying, mindless contradictions, endless excuses/vindictiveness when they lose. As they do. In every important game against SH teams.
Fascinating how Horgan's now slagging off the 6N in comparison with TRC. Having been lectured for years about how 6N is so much better prep for test rugby than the TRC, first 3 of the 4 semifinalists and both finalists in RWC were SH, and now this. With Aussie beating England and Argentina obliterating Italy, you wonder how more of the English/Irish media are gonna jump on Horgan's train to nowhere.
SA have the smarts to play to the letter of the rules and laws ala Richie MaCaw.
They beat the All Blacks twice at home, both times knowing that the referee had given them a general warning, next infringement someone goes off, simple..Duh?.
It's no good being captain if opportunities of getting any advantage aren't taken, the All Blacks had the same situation against Ireland but Scott Barrett never pushed the issue with Nic Berry who told Ireland about their high penalty count which they kept doing?.
SA do not play within the laws. Nz do not. Ireland do not. There's coming up from the side, offside rush d's, illegal clean outs, blocking decoy runners. Don't be one eyed.
Its funny how all these Irish pundits think that winning just 5 games against New Zealand over the last 100 yrs gives them the right to criticize the ABs..Why not wait till you achieve 5 more???
Red Warrior? More like a sickly Black n tan
Ahole
Its actually Pink. He just tries to call it red so no one knows its his wifes outfits.
These Irish rugby pundits and media presenters sure do love to talk some gobsheite about New Zealand. They definitely have a personal bias against NZ and continue to spout rubbish opinions. Take the L and move on.
This year, South Africa didn't "pump" New Zealand on their own turf as the World Champions. They barely won both games, and historically the games are very close, with exception to the 50-odd point pumping a number of years ago, and the 35-7 win in England thanks to having more players on the field because of NZ's ill-discipline and high tackles.
So not only is old mate Horgan being arrogant, he's also wrong, which is just as bad.
Ireland have lost 3 of their last 5 games and were deservedly knocked out of the TRWC at 1/4 final stage. Maybe look to your own team before slagging off the 3-time world champion and all time winningest team??
mmm - those grapes seem a little bitter
Another ex-player turned pundit flapping his gums.
South Africa on their day would beat every other team on the planet. That however says nothing about the game in question....
Maybe it comes with being the easy beats for so many decades but then some winning so not knowinghow to handle it. But there seems to be a few Irish like this Mr ... who(?) Shane Horgan, Teddy24 & Red Warrior hell bent on whinning on NZ's win parade.
Be happy with ya wins (eg your brilliant series win in NZ), self analysis your losses .... but also get some grace....like most of your fellow Irish folk.
I look forward to the next test V Ireland; hopefully forever not the easy beats again, it boring.
WR need to instruct refs to clean up the rucks, specifically the flopping behaviors and the related issue of playing when off your feet. Berry did penalize for "not rolling away", but we need to see more penalties, warnings and cards for not endeavouring to stay on your feet.
Law 15.12:
"Players must endeavour to remain on their feet throughout the ruck." Sanction: Penalty
Ireland were ruck-flopping all day, starting with the first ruck (about 5 seconds into the game).
Horgan's deep bitterness towards the ABs shows that Grief Cycling is fast becoming Ireland's National Sport. What a sad little man.
Can you stop being voyeurs of Irish media. Its weird. NZ pundits and fans boast 100% of the time. Sort your own house first. It was a dreadful performance by Ireland.
Its crazy how literally the only players in the irish team who performed well were lowe, hansen, aki, and jamison. That is it. The rest average or poor. Hilarious
Crazy how Kiwis love to mock beaten opponents.
Good grief
Don't do hypothetical jibber jabber Shane, you should know better than spew this bs.
Then what about Rob Kearney;
"if Ireland play to 90% they'll win"
He said the exact same just prior to the WC quarter final. What a reckless arrogant comment, unbelievable really.
Its a comment to an Irish audience. I agee, 90% would have won that game. For arrogance look at every NZ pundit and fan.
Is it that hard for Horgan to just take the loss on the chin, and concede defeat? The ABs were in front of the Springboks for like 60-70 minutes in both their two games, and SA came from behind to win. Even then the final score was close (4-6 points). Hardly a pump.
The margin between the top teams is minimal, and all of them can beat each other on their given day.
The Springboks beat the All Blacks and the Irish did not ( they were not even close). Best to leave SA out of it and focus on the Irish who are the #3 team in the world.
That's why we were satisfied to just bury their STREAK as a heavier loss would have demoted them....we are not interested in going higher until Razor has transformed our young one's into Test arena even if transformation takes till 2027. Why expose newbies to all before they are ready to succeed. They've been selected and with other developments need to be nurtured till they are fully ready to be exposed. Even his coachjng team are still learning as they go. In Razor we trust .....he admits he's learning fast!
All good except, that rugby matches aren’t decided in 60-70 minutes.
All closer to 80-100 minutes.
Precisely. That game was incredibly close, and it took one of the best SA sides of all time, in SA, a tremendous effort to overcome the ABs both times. SA deserved to win both games, but it really could've gone either way and each team would deserve it.
And NZ would pump this current SA team on their day.
There isn't much difference between the top 3 sides right now Be gracious in defeat, and accept that you lost. No two ways about it.
If anything, Ireland was lucky it was so wet. If it was dry, the ABs would've put up 40.
You beat SA 17 weeks ago, stop ragging on about it.
"And NZ would pump this current SA team on their day". Dream on.
Ireland were prepared for the dry. We made more handling errors. You only scored one try. Stop boasting.
Agree
Other than a 10 min burst after half time with Jordie in the bin the ABs were far better all round
As DMac said they kept it tight which was smart in the conditions and went wide but not recklessly when needed
JGP and to a lesser extent Lowe with his odd run and kicks kept them in the game
If it wasn’t for Berry allowing the Irish to flop all round the back and side of the ABs ball..
He only stayed to penalise them late on