IRISH CURSE BROKEN

DIT was’ie mooi nie, but the Springboks conquered their final boss after klapping Ireland 24-13 in Dublin on Saturday.

The win ended a 13-year wait for South Africa to finally taste victory on the Irish Isle and also put another notch on coach Rassie Erasmus’ belt for his first win away in Ireland.

However, it was an ill-tempered contest with the Iere clearly looking to klim in die Bokke se koppe with some off-the-ball stuff that would see the hosts get five players sin-binned.

What started it all was a brilliant try by fullback Damian Willemse, who flew into the linkerhoek and gave a “hou julle bekke” gesture to the Irish fans.

The Irish players did not like it at all, and instead of making the Bokke pay on the scoreboard, lock Jack Ryan went overboard, charging shoulder-first into the chest and neck of Malcolm Marx.

Ryan got sent off, with his yellow card upgraded to a red and also costing the Irish a try.

And 10 minutes later the Iere went down to 13 players as Sam Predergast was sin-binned for a professional foul.

South Africa made the Iere pay as Cobus Reinach ran in their second try.

Kudos to the Irish though, they fought back with 13 on the park as Dan Sheehan scored from a great attack after the restart.  

But the Bok pressure with their direct play saw the Iere concede nog ‘n yellow card as Jack Crowley was punished for repeated infringements by the hosts, followed by prop Andrew Porter as the Boks capitalised through a penalty try.

An early second half penalty by Prendergast cut the Bok lead, before Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu put his stamp on the game, scoring the Boks’ fourth try.

SA will however be gutted not to add any more points after that as Ireland’s defence held strong, although Paddy McCarthy became the fifth Ier to be sin-binned.