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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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“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.”

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1 Comment
b
barry 423 days ago

The winner of the RWC must a reliable goal kicker.

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JW 21 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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