The Irish and South African squads moved en bloc from their adjacent hotels near the sunny Cape Town waterfront to their bases in the Sandton suburb of cloudy Johannesburg on Sunday and, ironically, on the same flight; one basking in the glow of an historic win, the other hurt and wounded. Only there wasn't too much basking or glowing going on.
In times past, Irish tourists would have been only too happy to return home and call their season to an end after a one-off ambush, but this squad are acutely mindful that there are two more games in this series and history has repeatedly taught us that there’s no more dangerous animal than a wounded Bok.
Ireland also now have two shots at sealing an even more famous series win. Even the All Blacks lost all five previous Test series in South Africa before their epic 2-1 win of 1996, while the Lions have only achieved the feat four times in 13 tours, and only twice in their last 11 Test series in South Africa.
France have managed the feat twice as well, in 1958 and 1993, in seven attempts, while England and Australia have never done so in five tours apiece. So Ireland have a chance of joining some very exclusive company.
“Did you have to bring that up?” laughed Schmidt in the bowels of Newlands’ olde world charm of a stadium on Saturday. “To be honest, we haven’t looked that far ahead. We’re probably going to look at this game overnight and on the flight, probably a little bit quietly because we’re on the same flight as the Springboks who are travelling up to Joburg as well but I just think it’s going to be really tough.
"I know today we did it without a man but sometimes mentally, I've played in games where we've been down a man and played really well. I'll never forget a game in Thomond Park with Clermont when we went down 11-3 after Jamie Cudmore had a slight disagreement with Paul O'Connell and he was off for the same length of time and we went to 13-11 up," added Schmidt in reference to the 19th-minute red card incurred by Cudmore, despite which Clermont subsequently recovered from an 11-3 deficit to lead 13-11 before two late Munster tries.
“Munster scored with four minutes to go to win that game. I have seen it happen before and anyone who’s been around the game has seen that happen before. I wouldn’t say it was an advantage to us but it did probably just cause them to take the foot off the accelerator a little bit and it also caused our guys to dig a little bit deeper and thankfully it was just enough to tip a three-point balance.”
So, stick or twist?
Mindful of having to play three back-to-back Tests against the Springboks and that next Saturday’s second Test comes with the acute disadvantage of altitude, Schmidt was probably of a mind to utilise his squad. But he admitted that last Saturday’s performance makes it more difficult to omit some of those players.
“Yeah, look, it does. I know that either way I sometimes feel that if I do that’s great and if I don’t it’s great or it’s not great but what we’ll do is, the coaches will get together, we’ll get together with the medics and we’ll make those decisions later in the week.
“Some of them might get made earlier if the guys are fully fit, like the skipper and those sort of guys,” said Schmidt, for what he describes as “an unbelievably tough Test for us”.
Players such as Jack McGrath cannot be expected to go 80 minutes for three Saturdays in a row.
“Our guys don’t play at altitude. A lot of these (SA) players come from the Lions, I think it might be nine in the bigger squad that got selected so for us it’s going to be a huge challenge. I guess at the moment it’s too early to tell just exactly what we might do.”
To some degree his hand may be forced if CJ Stander incurs a suspension for the red card he incurred last Saturday when leading with his hip into one-time former South African under-20 team-mate Pat Lambie. All the more so with slow motions, it assuredly looked worse than it actually was, and there certainly appeared to be a genuine attempt to block Lambie's attempted chip, whereas there looked to be at least as much intent to hurt, for example, in the way Eben Etzebeth dived onto the prostrate Stander and Jamie Heaslip, or even Duane Vermeulen leading with his forearm into Jared Payne.
Rarely though has a red card so polarised opinion, with Schmidt adamant that it was “very, very harsh.” Stander’s fate was left hanging in the balance overnight after his disciplinary hearing was adjourned until 10am on Monday y in Johannesburg.
It is understood that the hearing lasted five hours without any resolution, before the judiciary officer, Terry Willis of Australia, decided to adjourn matters and also move the hearing to Johannesburg,
With Lambie ruled out due to concussion, new Springboks coach Allister Coetzee will be forced to make at least one change at outhalf, with home star Elton Jantjies sure to start.
Coetzee said: “I’m pleased that the reserves have made an impact, that’s why they’re there but I believe that players should be given a chance to redeem themselves, they are all disappointed and want an opportunity to fix it. Therefore, players will get an opportunity to fix it next week.
“There’s no reason to panic, the only panic we have is that we’ve got to flipping get it right next week. The players are really hurting, we didn’t just disappoint ourselves, we disappointed South Africa. This team had all the backing, all the support and that carries an extra load and it will inspire us to get back on track quickly.”
