An immense performance from Paul O'Connell's Irish forward pack was at the heart of the win over the Boks:
Peter O'Mahony and Caelan Doris. THE SHOTS OF Ireland’s coaches box told the story of Saturday night’s game in Dublin. Time and time again, defence coach Simon Easterby reached across to give forwards coach Paul O’Connell a congratulatory pat on the back after another massive moment at the maul. To be fair, O’Connell sent a few back Easterby’s way.
So often over the past 18 months, we have spoken about the handling skills of the Irish forwards, but this game was about their battling qualities. “The forward pack were excited at what was coming against them and I’ve constantly tried to drill into them that this is where you want to be. You want to be tested, you want to find out about yourself, you want to be of a state of mind that’s ‘Well, it doesn’t get better than this, let’s have a go at it.’ And I’m certain that’s how the forward pack felt this week. I think they came out pretty well.”To a man, the Irish forwards were superb.
Whatever about individual excellence, the collective effort of the Irish forwards was decisive. Their maul defence was stunning in every sense of the word – the South Africans looked like they couldn’t believe their lack of forward progress in an area that has been such a massive strength for them. There were four massive stops from O’Connell’s charges at the maul, three of them coming inside the opening 25 minutes.
This wasn’t about Ireland side-stepping the Boks’ biggest weapons. They took them on directly and beat them at their own game, following up on two maul tries in the third Test against the All Blacks last summer with another beauty on Saturday evening. As for the brilliant Irish maul defence, van der Flier explained that O’Connell and the Irish players did much of their preparation through video analysis.
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Farrell takes pride in Irish win over Boks but World Cup is 'miles off'Some of Ireland’s key men had been short of game time but delivered impressively.
Read more »
Brutal Boks pack and the Bomb Squad mean Ireland have to go up another levelAndy Farrell’s side will face a different challenge today to the one in New Zealand last summer.
Read more »
Farrell's Ireland down the world champion Boks on a magic night in DublinSecond-half tries from Josh van der Flier and Mack Hansen were crucial in a brilliant win for Ireland.
Read more »
Paul O'Connell has transformed the Irish pack, but today is their biggest test yet'We take on teams that like mauling a lot, we probably don't take on teams that like mauling as much as South Africa.'
Read more »