In times past, a tour-ending seasonal finale, particularly to a mammoth one like this, would have looked decidedly daunting. For starters, there isn’t a spare ticket or a hotel room to be had.
Port Elizabeth is agog. The Boks are buoyant again, have picked a better team and assuredly can't perform as fitfully. Normal order has been restored. Their supporters expect.
Meantime, Ireland’s hand has been further weakened by the loss of Jared Payne and Robbie Henshaw, leaving them without about a third of a notional first-choice XV. The nagging suspicion lingers that their best chance of completing an historic and, frankly, remarkable series win may have passed them by.
Ireland tend not to do Last (Tests) of the Summer Tours very well. "One foot on the beach" syndrome, as Rory Best conceded yesterday.
Until the 2-0 series win in Argentina two summers ago, Ireland hadn’t signed off a summer tour in the southern hemisphere with a win since the 2-0 series win in Australia in 1979.
In the interim there have been ten season-ending defeats in the concluding tests of tours to the southern hemisphere big three, as well as defeats to Namibia and Argentina.
Thrashing
Some of them don’t make for pretty recollections, be it the 59-6 thrashing by the All Blacks in 1992 a week after nearly winning in Dunedin, the 32-18 loss in Australia two years later, the 33-0 beating in the Battle of Pretoria in 1998, the 40-8 defeat in New Zealand in 2002 or, of course, the 60-0 Hamilton horror show on this weekend four years ago a week after nearly winning the second test.
Asked if he would reference Hamilton in his pep talk, Best quipped: “We try to forget about that.” He then added: “That was a different era in Irish rugby. When you look at the circumstances around that, to bring Paddy Wallace off a beach on a Sunday afternoon to fly halfway across the world to arrive on a Wednesday to play on a Saturday against the best team in the world; there’s so many things around that that were so much different.
“We’re better prepared,” said Best, citing the faith in Tiernan O’Halloran. “Tiernan has trained all week and he is prepared to start. He gets a start that his performance deserves and there’s no trying to fly someone out to fill that spot. We have faith in the guys that are here.
“To go back to Hamilton, probably the other thing is that they’re all so young now that none of them really remember it,” quipped Best, only half in jest. “They were either playing under-age rugby or maybe partying somewhere in some beach resort. And the guys that were there, you have to unfortunately put that down to mistakes and bad preparation and that’s not what this team is about.”
Brilliant situation
In this, of course, there’s another difference four years on. In a word, as one member of the squad from four years ago put it: “Joe.”
There’s also Andy Farrell. Asked yesterday what he’d learned about these players in the two matches to date, Ireland’s new defence coach said: “I could be here all day to answer that question but mainly that they’ve got a lot of heart, a lot of guts and it matters to them to want to get better.”
“You’ve got kids on this tour that haven’t been anywhere near a situation like we’re going into on Saturday and they’re taking it head on. That’s why I say it’s a brilliant situation for us. It’s priceless, the feedback that we’ll get after the tour will be fantastic for the start of next season and the games that we’ve got coming up.”
“When a young kid like Stu Olding comes in after the setbacks that he’s had throughout his career and performed like he did last weekend and get the chance to back it up in a series decider is priceless, not just for Stu but for another eight, nine, 10 players on this tour.”
Indeed, this tour is already in credit, and this squad have earned a rare shot at history, even if last week’s slipped through their fingers.
As Farrell said there were a myriad of factors as to why Ireland relinquished their grip on last week’s second Test, but one imagines they’ll be better prepared for the “low carries” which saw the Boks’ brutish ball carriers break tackles.
Physically, this is another daunting challenge. With the powerful Warren Whiteley and Ruan Combrinck added to a mix already including Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi, Damian de Allende et al - as opposed to the chants of The Beast which accompany his comparatively modest metres - the Boks have way more ball carriers.
Old fears
Thus, the old fears abound, especially were the Boks to get rumbling, with last week reminding us they are the ultimate momentum team.
But Schmidt’s teams don’t do horror shows, and if Ireland can again keep the ball and quieten the crowd, as they’ve done in the first two quarters so far, they’ll be in the game again.
The pack is strong, Conor Murray (in his 50th test) and Paddy Jackson are in form, so too the wingers, and if the midfield and O'Halloran perform to their best, Ireland have proved over 140 minutes they can live with them.
The odds are again stacked against them. But they’ll be accurate, they’ll be smart in how they use the ball and they’ll be competitive, and provided they are relatively fortunate with injuries, they have a shot again.
SOUTH AFRICA: W le Roux (Sharks); R Combrinck (Lions), L Mapoe (Lions), D de Allende (Stormers), JP Pietersen (Sharks); E Jantjies (Lions), F de Klerk (Lions); T Mtawarira (Sharks), A Strauss (Bulls) (capt), F Malherbe (Stormers), E Etzebeth (Stormers), P-S du Toit (Stormers), F Louw (Bath), S Kolisi (Stormers), W Whiteley (Lions).
Replacements: B Mbonambi (Stormers), S Kitshoff (Bordeaux-Begles), J Redelinghuys (Lions), F Mostert (Lions), J Kriel (Lions), R Paige (Bulls), M Steyn (St Francais), L Mvovo (Sharks).
IRELAND: T O'Halloran (Connacht); A Trimble (Ulster), L Marshall (Ulster), S Olding (Ulster), K Earls (Munster); P Jackson (Ulster), C Murray (Munster); J McGrath (Leinster), R Best (Ulster) (capt), M Ross (Leinster), I Henderson (Ulster), D Toner (Leinster), CJ Stander (Munster), J Murphy (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster).
Replacements: S Cronin (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht), T Furlong (Leinster), U Dillane (Connacht), R Ruddock (Leinster), E Reddan (Leinster), I Madigan (Leinster), M Healy (Connacht).
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand).
Forecast: South Africa to win.
