The defining moment that will 'raise massive question marks' for Ireland

South Africa greats Jean de Villiers and Schalk Burger have dismissed the notion that a gap has opened between the top teams in the world and Ireland following their loss to France at the weekend, but their status is dependent on how they perform against the Springboks at the end of the year.

The reigning Guinness Six Nations champions were striving for a record third straight title and a Grand Slam heading into round four, but were resoundingly beaten 27-42 by France in Dublin, with two late tries making the scoreline look vaguely respectable.

In the wake of the defeat, which left Ireland’s title hopes hanging by a thread, Hanyani Shimange asked on this week’s latest episode of RugbyPass TV’s Boks Office where it leaves this Irish side that were world number ones just a matter of months ago.

While Ireland are officially third in the rankings, behind South Africa and New Zealand, the Boks Office team agreed that France are now ahead of them, but a gap is yet to appear between the top three and Ireland. De Villiers did say that there would be “massive question marks” if South Africa were to have the same success France did when they meet Ireland in Dublin on November 22.

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Shimange highlighted how France “came with a hell of a lot of power”, which is the “slow poison” that Ireland have traditionally struggled with. He added that “if this was a Springbok team at home that got demolished like that against France, people would be baying for blood.”

But De Villiers and Burger allayed any concerns that may be bubbling up in Irish rugby, though they did still address areas that may need fixing.

“This is the kind of game that is like a World Cup play-off, everything is on the line, can they stand up and deliver?” De Villiers said.

“I don’t think on one performance you can say there is a big gap to Ireland. There’s very much those four together.

“Remember 12 months ago, Ireland smashed the French.

“In terms of the last 18 months or so, from an Irish point of view this is a massive blip for them, but I certainly won’t disregard them and say they are now a distant fourth, they are not.

“If we’re sitting here again, first week of December and South Africa have totally dominated Ireland physically in Dublin, then I would raise massive question marks.”

Burger only needed to look back to Ireland’s victory over South Africa in July to suggest they have a power game to mix with the best. With that said, he pinpointed where the world champions are ahead of them.

“They’ve had a bit of a reshuffle because Faz has gone off to do the Lions,” the former flanker said. “Easterby’s taken charge. They had a couple of star players out. I think they still need to develop a blindside flanker. They’re still developing Prendergast. But I think if James Lowe’s not there, they miss a bit of X-factor.

“You just have to look at how dominant Leinster are in the URC to think there are good enough players there. Still, they’ve got to develop at international level. We developed a hell of a lot of players over the last 18 months, you can’t say the same for the Irish team. They haven’t had the same development rate that we have, although they have got a nice bank of players, especially in Dublin.

“I think we saw it in Durban. It took a drop-goal, but they were up for it and the Boks were hurting after that game. That’s the most physical I’ve seen the Irish team.”