South Africa make heavy weather of victory over indisciplined Ireland

The IRFU may be disconnected from a chunk of their audience on the price of Test rugby at Lansdowne Road but at least those who ponied up large can claim to have witnessed a truly crazy match. In the 2013 Six Nations in Rome Ireland had their backline sundered by a freakish run of injuries, leaving holes being filled by men who didn’t know how to hold a shovel. But here, on a perfect night for rugby and with a game promising to develop into a gripping contest, we saw four players banished for crimes and misdemeanours in the first half alone. Mad stuff, at the end of which the world champions stumbled to a win that should have been managed with half the effort.

The passage to the overflowing sin bin was halted only by the half-time whistle, at which point the referee, Matt Carley, was booed off the field with a venom you don’t often get at these events. Their sense of injustice kicked off with the decision not to card Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for a dangerous tackle on Tommy O’Brien.

So South Africa took with them a 19-7 lead and the knowledge they would be starting the second half against 12 men, albeit not for long. Ireland meantime were down the corridor with Andy Farrell wondering what pieces he could move around a very bare-looking chessboard.

The coach had seen James Ryan go first, on a yellow card escalated to red for a no-arms clean out on Malcolm Marx. The traffic became turbo charged in the last eight minutes of the half with Sam Prendergast, replacement Jack Crowley and then Andrew Porter all going off for a variety of offences.

It was only in that bizarre passage that the Boks actually got to grips with turning their pronounced dominance at the scrum to something material on the scoreboard. They looked less confused when playing against 15 men, putting Damian Willemse over for a try inside four minutes. That said, they looked happy enough early in the second half when Sam Prendergast was back on the field to kick a penalty, only for his brother Cian to spill the restart. With yet another scrum penalty advantage to play with Feinberg-Mngomezulu, a serious athlete with a surfeit of skill, fended Jamison Gibson-Park en route to the line. That put the Boks 24-10 ahead, and looking safe.

Not so safe that they could order-in and open a bottle of red, but given they had the combination to the penalty safe there was no secure route Ireland could take in pursuit. Consider that in a six minutes spell in the second quarter South Africa put Ireland on the rack, twisting seven penalties from the home side with the scrum the primary source. And that was before the haemorrhage of home players started, then continued in the second half when Paddy McCarthy was yellow carded.

Even so, South Africa spent the last few minutes frantically defending their own line, with the slim comfort of a two-score lead, which they held until Carley blew for the last time, kicking off another chorus of boos.

The Boks looked relieved, but that will last only until the review: how could a team so dominant at set piece, and with a decent all-court game to match, end up in hand to hand combat to get over the finish line. To their credit they sailed close to the wind in keeping Ireland out, and ironically ended up a man short when Grant Williams was sent to the sin bin with a minute left. They will look forward to their holidays.