Farrell: We’ll Make Sure We Learn The Lessons From That

It was only a third loss for Ireland in 28 Test matches at the Aviva Stadium, with New Zealand (23-13 last November) and France (42-27 during the 2025 Six Nations) the only other visiting teams to emerge victorious during that run.

Most of the damage was done during a ferociously-fought opening 40 minutes, which were bookended by Damian Willemse’s early unconverted score and a late penalty try to leave Ireland trailing 19-7.

On top of James Ryan’s 20-minute red card for an illegal clearout, Farrell’s men began the second period without the sin-binned trio of Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, and Andrew Porter, as well as the injured Tommy O’Brien.

Despite conceding a fourth try to Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, a couple of Prendergast penalties, and some resolute defence across the board, saw Ireland edge the closing half 6-5 and finish the contest hunting for an elusive try to add to Dan Sheehan’s earlier effort.

“I haven’t seen a game like that ever,” said Farrell afterwards. “You think you’ve seen it all. I suppose, first and foremost, you look at yourself and why things have happened, so we’ll do that.

“Make sure that we learn the lessons from that, buy my overriding thought of the game is that I’m unbelievably proud.

“If you can’t learn from that, then you’re in the wrong place really. For all sorts of reasons, I thought going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for their country.

“Certainly in that first ten minutes of the second half, it was absolutely amazing. I think you could see with the crowd the effort that they put in, that the crowd recognised that and supported them.

“To be able to win a second half 6-5 under those type of circumstances, I know it doesn’t tell the full story of the second half, but it’s actually amazing really that that occurred.”

The Quilter Nations Series clash could have got away from Ireland, especially with Paddy McCarthy’s scrum infringements earning him a yellow card. But they hung in there, the pack emptying the tank, and Crowley quick off the mark to deny both Cheslin Kolbe and Canan Moodie.

Lively replacement Cian Prendergast’s lineout steal, and a couple of subsequent penalties, had the hosts pressing late on. A converted try would have made it a four-point game with time still left, but Josh van der Flier, McCarthy, and Jack Conan were all stopped just short.

There was also an opportunity in midfield when Prendergast got the ball to replacement Tom Farrell, but the space was quickly closed down. Despite 78% possession and a big territory swing in the last 10 minutes, Ireland emerged scoreless during that spell.

“The lessons to learn are that when you fight so hard to give yourself a chance, you know you’re at 72 minutes, trying to overplay probably in your own 22, still got time on the clock, and to put ourselves back in the right field positions.

“We overplayed a little bit and wasted a little bit of time, but then we find a way and with four minutes to go there, we had a glaring chance to score a try under the posts.

“We score that and who knows what could have happened with a little bit of momentum, but we couldn’t do that, so all credit has to go to South Africa.”

The Springboks came out on top to claim their first win in Dublin since 2012. Their power-packed scrum was a key weapon, the set-piece leading to a yellow card in each half for Ireland and the awarding of that penalty try.

The home side conceded a total of 18 penalties, all but two of them in defence, and adding to their frustration is that a lot of them were avoidable, with discipline slipping for offside decisions, foul play, and six penalties conceded around the ruck and maul.

The cards, and the scrummaging pressure exerted by the ‘Boks, obviously had an impact, and it was a case too that Ireland could not match the levels of accuracy and execution they had shown during last week’s record victory over Australia.

Asked about conceding the penalty try just before the break, Farrell admitted: “You can look at all sorts of different situations within the game, you can say that that was the turning point.

“The yellow card that went to red (for Ryan) was a try that we scored (through Tadhg Beirne) and obviously pulled back. We started the game pretty well but then on the back foot, certainly as far as under the pump there with the scrum.

“Then a few stupid errors from ourselves, you know, playing the ball through the ruck, and I think we had three offside penalties.

“They’re the manageable ones that you don’t give a team like that access, but we did. They try and cause a bit of chaos within the game, certainly at scrum time but in general as well.

“I thought we just lost our composure a little bit as far as that’s concerned, certainly at the end there as far as our shape is concerned.

“Some of the stuff that we did really well last week (against Australia) didn’t really transfer this week. Our kicking game was a bit long and a bit off at times.

“Our high ball stuff was way better last week, and our conversion in the 22 was way better obviously last week. But that’s the type of pressure that a world-class side like South Africa bring.”

It was backs against the wall stuff, particularly when Ireland re-emerged for the start of the second half with just 12 players on the field. With both Prendergast and Crowley in the sin bin, it was Mack Hansen, from a shorthanded back-line, who took the restart kick.

Porter’s sin-binning for repeated scrum offences had brought McCarthy on at loosehead prop, with Josh van der Flier having to make way. Bundee Aki also packed down at blindside flanker for the scrums to keep it eight versus eight.

Speaking about what was said at half-time, Farrell expllained: “You’re just trying to get a bit of order of people who are playing in different positions, and positions that don’t actually exist because of a 12-man nature, you know.

“People are covering obviously two or three positions, different positions in attack and different positions in defence, so you’re just trying to get a bit of order.

“Let the lads understand who’s coming back at what time and how we need to manage the game in that period. Amongst all that, I thought they did outstandingly well.”

Ireland were 100% on their own scrum feed (4/4), but South Africa, who retained possession from 12 scrums of their own and four resets, forced six penalties in the set-piece, notably bringing on replacement props Wilco Louw and Gerhard Steenekamp just before the penalty try.

“Obviously you can talk about all sorts of stuff that you’ve talked to the referees beforehand during the week, and say those are the same similar type of pictures, etc., but you’ve got to look at yourself first,” Farrell said on the topic of the scrum.

“You’ve got to not give the referee the access to see you in whatever type of light that he was obviously seeing us in. He saw a dominant scrum and whether there’s illegalities within all that, we’ve got to see past that and be better than that.”

Meanwhile, Ireland may have come out of the November international window with a record of two wins and two losses, but captain Caelan Doris reckons that they can use Saturday night’s experience to their advantage when they regroup for the Six Nations.

It was pretty unique, yeah, chaotic is the word that sums it up definitely,” said Doris, reflecting on the incident-packed fixture. “Like ‘Faz’ referenced earlier, I’m proud of the fight, the courage, the character that we showed at times.

“Obviously you want that to transfer into points and results, but I do think it’s going to stand to us going forward, definitely.”

Doris put in a typically resolute performance from number 8, making nine ball carries, beating one defender and picking up one turnover, and was the team’s top tackler with 13.

“There was a good reset at half-time and there was excitement about going out and enjoying the chaotic nature, and trying to stay calm within that and keep fighting.

“I thought it was good. We were aware that it was four or five minutes until we had numbers back in. The way we dug in, I thought, was pretty pleasing,” he added.