Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Tadhg Beirne perfectly sums up Ireland's win over South Africa

By PA
Tadhg Beirne of Ireland celebrates the victory after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between South Africa and Ireland at Stade de France on September 23, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Images)

Tadhg Beirne admits Ireland had to “fight for everything” against South Africa and could easily have come out on the wrong side of a “ferocious” battle in Paris.

ADVERTISEMENT

Test rugby’s number one nation were under severe pressure for much of the second half at Stade de France but doggedly dug in during the closing stages to secure a statement 13-8 success.

Victory over the World Cup holders stretched Ireland’s remarkable winning run to 16 matches while propelling them to the brink of the quarter-finals.

“I’m obviously ecstatic to come away with the win,” said Munster lock Beirne.

“We made tough work of it a bit in the second half, we probably struggled to get out of our half a bit.

“But the resilience we showed and the defence we showed we’ll be pretty pleased with that. They’re a big physical side and they certainly threw a lot of punches out there.

“When you’re in it, you probably don’t realise how ferocious it is, you’re just next-moment focused and we did have to fight for everything.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It was a hard-fought battle for sure and it could easily have went the other way. We showed a lot of resilience at the end to keep them out.”

Ireland’s performance was hindered by repeated line-out losses but they benefited from the Springboks’ wayward goal-kicking.

Related

Beirne believes his side deserve credit for sticking to their plan amid the set-piece struggles as they ultimately underlined their status as one of the tournament favourites.

“The way South Africa defend, they’re one of the best defensive teams in terms of the line-out,” said the 31-year-old.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We knew they were going to be good. We had a plan, it just didn’t go the way we wanted at the start so we stuck with the plan and then it started to come good for us.

“Sometimes you win some line-outs that you think you had a plan for and sometimes you lose them, and at the start we lost them. But we didn’t fold, we stuck with the plan.

“We knew how big this game was, so it’s quite satisfying to get the win.”

South Africa missed three penalties – two from scrum-half Faf de Klerk and one from fly-half Manie Libbok.

Libbok also failed to convert Cheslin Kolbe’s try, prompting suggestions he should be replaced by the fit-again Handre Pollard, who was added to the Springboks’ squad last weekend, moving forward.

“That we’ll have to sit down and discuss,” said head coach Jacques Nienaber, whose side take on Tonga next Sunday. “There are a lot of things that go into team selection.

“We missed a couple of points off the tee but I won’t say that’s the reason solely for not getting across the line.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

Edinburgh vs Clovers

LIVE

Cape Town | Leg 1 | Day 1

Boks Office | Episode 36 | Six Nations Round 3 Review

England A vs Ireland A | Full Match Replay

HSBC SVNS Vancouver | Men's Day Three Highlights

HSBC SVNS Vancouver | Women's Day Three Highlights

"I would love to play with Siya Kolisi" | HSBC Life on Tour | Vancouver

Kubota Spears vs Shizuoka BlueRevs | JRLO 2024/2025 | Full Match Replay

Behind the Scenes with the Stars of the Kenya Rugby Sevens Team | HSBC SVNS Embedded | Episode 7

O2 Inside Line: This Rose | Episode 3 | France Week

Watch now: Lomu - The Lost Tapes

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

1 Comment
b
barry 522 days ago

The winner of the RWC must a reliable goal kicker.

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

R
RedWarriors 8 minutes ago
The Springbok selection experiment is far from over

SA and NZ were the main countries “Whining” about the draw that put SA/NZ/IRE/FRA all on the same side of the draw. Ireland, France and Scotland are well used to it. Most countries have come face to face with the biased draw and scheduling many times since the RWC was inaugurated in 1987.

Everyone agreed the draw was a farce , but yes someone had to pox their way through and that was SA. You get to play a France team in the QF before they have a knock out win under their belt. You won as the inferior team, the world saw that. If the draw had been harder for SA and you were scheduled to play Scotland the week before then you were out.

England were stronger for most of the match with a 9 point lead with 10 to go. They will be massively disapointed to lose from there especially with the non peanalty awarded at the end.

Lastly, you needed a red card to beat NZ. 100%. Not in doubt. It was a 1 point game. You were losing without the red.

SA beat what was in front of them. Not in doubt. That they were lucky is not in doubt either. That the draw made the win significantly easier for SA to get past the QF, is not in doubt either. You play France in the SF or final, you are losing badly.

‘Butt hurt’? Thats an Americanism to imply homosexuality? On about raping women now lobbing homophobic comments. Some of you Saffers, past and present have a very very disturbing attitude…historically and present day.

54 Go to comments
N
NB 2 hours ago
Have England suddenly become a 'lucky' team?

I think you need to look at some examples in order to get your facts straight.


If you look at the second gif in the article https://imgur.com/a/6QNcVtB#NG27wFf , you can see that Scotland are running the shape I describe, and the ‘flat option’ does not actively impede a tackler so has no need to retreat.


Ditto this one https://imgur.com/a/hNktXel#gbQSsT4 . There is no significant contact with a defender by the flat option, so why does it need to [over-]refereed?


I feel you’re trying to address an issue that exists mostly in your own imagination, not one that exists out on the field of play.

83 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ The games that defined legendary status for O’Mahony, Murray and Healy The games that defined legendary status for O’Mahony, Murray and Healy
Search