Boks end Dublin drought as Erasmus finally beats Ireland

Dublin — Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus was pleased his team could get a monkey off their back on Saturday 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.

South Africa dominated a chaotic game in which Ireland were handed one 20 min red card and four yellows, and they should have run out a lot more comfortable winners than the 24-13 scoreline suggested.

It was, however, the world champions’ first victory in four attempts at Aviva Stadium, having also lost four of the last five clashes against Andy Farrell’s men.

“Ireland have totally dominated us since we’ve been a group together; if you take the five games, they’re still 3-2 up against us, so we won’t get carried away with this,” said former Munster coach Erasmus, 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 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 last two games, including a hugely impressive victory over Six Nations champions France.

“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 we 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 South African 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 probably be 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.”

Reuters