Coach Rassie Erasmus pleased to get Irish monkey off South Africa’s back

DUBLIN – South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus was pleased his team could get a monkey off their back on Nov 22 by winning in Dublin for the first time in 13 years and start to tip the scales of the sides’ recent rivalry away from Ireland.

The Springboks dominated a chaotic game in which Ireland were handed one 20-minute red card and four yellows and they should have run out much more comfortable winners than the 24-13 scoreline suggested.

It was, however, the world champions’ first victory in four attempts at Lansdowne Road, having also lost four of the previous five clashes with Andy Farrell's men.

“Ireland has totally dominated us since we’ve been a group together, if you take the (last) five games they’re still 3-2 up against us, so we won’t get carried away with this,” said the former Munster coach, who was also celebrating his first win at the stadium.

“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.”

The Springboks totally overwhelmed Ireland in the scrum, inflicting much of the disciplinary damage. Man of the Match and newly crowned World Player of the Year Malcolm Marx remarked that having so many scrums was not “pleasing on the neck”.

But it made for an altogether different experience after they had to win with 14 men in their previous two games, including a hugely impressive victory over Six Nations champions France.

Damian Willemse, Cobus Reinach and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu crossed the line for the Boks, while Ireland’s sole try came via Dan Sheehan.

“We’ve been part of quite a few games that were like this when we had to grind it out with 14 men, this was a totally different challenge here. I thought we were dominant for most parts of the game, but just couldn’t kill it,” Erasmus said.

“It was hectic, it was difficult to manage... Certainly not a perfect performance but it was a monkey on our back that we had to get off.”

South Africa finish their long season against Wales this week but with the game outside the Test window, Erasmus estimated he will have 24 or 25 of the touring party left to choose from.

With a top seeding for the 2027 World Cup secured during the unbeaten tour, however, it was mission accomplished for the coach.

“Our aim this year was to try and end in the top four in the world rankings while rotating. I think we’ve used 50 players this year and next year can be probably a bit more experimental,” he said.

“We’re realistic. We lost two matches this year, two matches last year, so I think we are up in certain areas, but a lot of work still to do if we think we can stay at the top.”

Ireland coach Andy Farrell, meanwhile, said his overriding feeling was one of unbelievable pride after his side spent part of a “mad game” down to 12 men after a flurry of cards.

They lost James Ryan to a 20-minute red card early on, had three men in the sin bin during a nine-minute spell late in the first half and suffered a fourth yellow after the break as their scrum succumbed to incessant pressure.

“To say it was stop-start is an understatement, with all the carry on with the cards and stoppages for the scrums. A mad game. I wouldn’t have thought I’d seen anything like that before and I’ve seen a few things,” Farrell said.

“But the overriding feeling is I’m unbelievably proud. Going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for the country, certainly in the first 10 minutes of that second half was absolutely amazing.” REUTERS