After such a brutally physical game, South Africa looked at their kicking and asked what might have been had their aim been true. There were a few misses and one ball bounced back off the Irish post.
Coach Jacques Nienaber tried to be stoic and didn’t ask his kickers to fall on their swords. Not that it was it the only reason Ireland followed their series win over New Zealand in the summer with the scalp of the World Cup champions.
“If people look at that, they’ll say that’s the difference between the two teams. Johnny [Sexton] missed also a kick or two but he nailed the big ones. Obviously, we missed a couple. It’s something we’ll keep working on,” said Nienaber
“Ya, we’re working on it,” he added. “If we actually measure the goalkicking ... they measure their own goalkicking and so they know what percentages they are kicking during the week. Like I say some instances you hit the post.
“Sometimes it goes in off the post sometimes it hits the post, so it is what it is and none of the goalkickers go there to miss a goal. The key thing is you nail the big ones and the key thing is we didn’t nail our big ones. I’ll never blame the player for that they just must keep working on that.”
What might have surprised South Africa is how Ireland competed so well on the platforms the Springboks normally pride themselves in dominating, the scrum, lineouts and mauls. It was there where they were taken on and where Ireland found purchase with Josh van der Flier scoring one of Ireland’s tries from an attacking maul.
“I thought Ireland deserved this one. I thought they were good and they showed why they are number one in the world,” said Nienaber. “They got a couple of opportunities and they capitalised on that. We spoke in the week, everyone look at Ireland’s general attack and how they keep the ball in hand.
“People sometimes miss the fact they have a really good maul. They are probably one of the teams that maul just behind us. They used their early maul quite well and they sometimes disguise their lineout with their early maul. They scored against us now, they scored against France, which are big teams and they scored against New Zealand. They got opportunities and they nailed it. We got a couple of opportunities and we didn’t nail it. For me that’s why they are number one in the world.”
Ireland keeps their world number one status but from the disappointment of the defeat, Nienaber believes South Africa have learned something about the personality and make-up of Ireland’s game, a pearl of wisdom in the muck. The teams are in each other’s pool in the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“It is the first time we played them [Ireland] since 2018 or 17,” said Nienaber. “For us as a coaching team it is the first time. I think both teams will have taken a lot out of this game. The fact that we made certain plans and some of them worked and some of them didn’t work. That’s something to work off when we meet each other again.”
But he’s not sweating the loss such a distance from the competition. Winning or losing 12 months out has some relevance but it is in limited ways and far from predictive of what will happen when the sides meet in Pool B on September 23rd next year.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Nienaber when asked if the game had relevance to the World Cup. “I think you learn a lot in preparation and obviously it builds momentum, or it doesn’t build momentum. I think Ireland will go into the next games with a lot of momentum.
“In 2018 we lost 50 per cent of our games and you still win a World Cup [in 2019]. So, for the first pool match, history will say you can’t win a World Cup if you lose your first pool match. If you lose your first British and Irish Lions game, history will show you can’t win the series. It’s a myth.
“But obviously it builds confidence. It builds momentum and it creates opportunity to be maybe creative in terms of development of your game and team selection.”
