Rassie Erasmus gave South Africa’s performance and the support they received from their travelling fans at the Aviva Stadium, a double thumbs up, literally after the final whistle, a Test match the visitors won 24-13, deservedly so, and a first victory in Dublin since 2012.
South Africa’s head coach explained that the coaches’ box is soundproofed and that is why he employed a hand gesture in acknowledging the Springboks supporters and not as others had surmised was a defiant gesture to the Irish supporters.
“It was a thank you to our people. We’ve got respect for the way the Irish people support their team. This is a special stadium. I am glad the way that they welcomed RG [Snyman] on to the pitch [to celebrate his 50th cap].
Erasmus was gracious in victory, or as much as he could be, while stressing his team’s dominance in the scrum, had received a just reward in terms of forcing cards and a penalty try. He acknowledged that Ireland had enjoyed the nap hand against South Africa in recent head-to-head matches, so it did make the win “a little sweeter.”
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“It’s nice, any beer [which he was drinking] is nice after a win, especially against a quality team like Ireland, who’s totally dominated us since we’ve been a group together. If you take the five games, they’re still 3-2 up against us, so we won’t get carried away with this, but yeah the beer is a little bit sweeter and we’re just thankful that we could manage to beat them here.
“It’s been a long season for our guys. I know a lot of the guys must go to Japan and to URC games and so on, but I also know the whole Leinster team, only two not starting from Leinster in that game (sic), they also have to go to URC, so it worked both ways, but we are proud after a long season to grind through a win against a team like them at home, for the first time in 13 or 14 years.
He said: “the game was very physical, and, obviously, it was a 20-minute red card game (referring to the red card given to James Ryan by the Foul Play Review Officer, Dan Jones), which I thought was the right call.
“I thought we were dominant for most parts of the game but just couldn’t kill it [off] inside their 22. It was hectic, it was difficult to manage, it was sometimes difficult to understand who’s off and who’s on, and who comes back, who’s gone for a HIA and who’s injured.”
“I do think we were dominant in scrums. I’m not saying we should have got yellow cards or not, but we’ve been part of quite a few games that were like this, where we had to grind it out to 14 men.”
South African hooker Malcolm Marx, who was confirmed as the 2025 World Player of the Year, paid tribute to Ireland’s resilience. He had a brilliant game on a personal level, a continuation of an outstanding season.
Marx said: “I thought they [Ireland] did extremely well in the second half, they held us out, gave away a few penalties [in doing so] but they are a quality side, I think they showed what they’re all about.
“They are a quality side; it’s always going to be a tough matchup. The character they showed was immense, but obviously a massive congratulations to them too.”
Erasmus was asked about the hugely physical nature of South Africa’s performance, but he was quick to point out that he felt that Ireland didn’t lose anything in comparison when weighing up that attribute.
“It was physical, but I don’t think they [Ireland] came out second best based on the physicality. If they had scored in the last four minutes, there would have been a kickoff and the match was on [again]. We were dominant in the scrums but overall, we weren’t that dominant.”
South Africa minus a glut of players will travel to play Wales in the final Test match of their season which falls outside the international window.
