The South Africans seemed to stun Andy Farrell’s side with their beautiful opening score.
Murray Kinsella Reports from uMhlanga THE BOKS BURST out of the blocks in Pretoria and Ireland were left chasing for the rest of the game.The Ireland head coach was honest in the aftermath and he had cause to be disappointed with how they were beaten. Upon review, Farrell’s men will feel that all three tries they conceded were avoidable.
Ireland don’t have a huge amount of width in their frontline as a result , with just 10 players in it and tackler Tadhg Furlong staying on the ground to avoid the danger of an offside penalty. Du Toit has no other option in this instance as he heads towards the touchline but South Africa made 16 offloads in this Test, a huge increase on their offloading numbers before Brown came in.
Boks hooker Bongi Mbonambi playing a sweep passe out the back is certainly a relatively new picture from the Boks, Pollard then shifting the ball wide to fullback Willie le Roux, who finds centre Jesse Kriel running into space. The poor TV angles mean it’s hard for us to see perfectly, but the shot below shows how Nash is completely disconnected from van der Flier having held back, meaning Kriel has huge space to run into.
By the time the pass is gone out the back door, it’s too late for van der Flier to adjust out onto le Roux and stop him with the ball. As we see above, Kriel is therefore able to threaten the retreating Nash’s inside shoulder, tying Nash up before he passes to Siya Kolisi. He might want to use the touchline in his favour, showing Arendse the outside and trying to force him into touch before he can finish but the Boks wing is lightning-quick and already close to full speed. There’s no guarantee with that option.
Lowe’s job here is to try and keep the ball in play, denying the Springboks an attacking lineout, and the job of the players around him is to be ready to claim the ball if he manages to keep it in. It’s brilliant work from Kolbe, who chases so many lost causes with no reward, but Ireland should be frustrated at their comparatively sleepy reaction.
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