LONG READ ‘South Africa did exactly the right thing. If you have your foot on someone’s throat, you keep it there’

For the final 15 minutes at Aviva Stadium on Saturday night, Ireland broke the scrummaging siege and desperately tried to punch back. At 24-13 behind, and still a man down (Paddy McCarthy sin-binned), this was a cornered animal trying to spit and claw its way out. Not for the first time, South Africa had an answer.

Knowing how utterly dominant their scrum was, the Springboks sent five towering kicks towards, and into, the Irish 22 in the space of four minutes. The aerial bombardment was designed to pin Ireland back near their tryline. Four of the five kicks were contestable. The South African chasers had no real intention of catching the balls – they were mainly hoping to force handling errors that would lead to more scrums.

On the one occasion that Cheslin Kolbe competed in the air for an up-and-under, he knocked on. That did not matter, either. It would be another scrum, unless Ireland used their advantage well. They did not. Sam Prendergast sought to find touch but left his kick short and found only Mannie Libbok. He knew the brief. Up went another soaring kick. Garry Ringrose swatted the ball back, under pressure from Grant Williams, but Ireland were back in their 22.

Ireland almost broke free, up the left, but Kolbe jumped to block a James Lowe chip. Jack Crowley had to turn on the after-burners to get back, clean up, and zoom out of trouble. Play spread left and Ringrose beamed a kick past the halfway line. Damian Willemse gathered and shoved it right back down Ireland’s throats. Jamison Gibson-Park, again under pressure, slapped the ball back. Canan Moodie was in hot pursuit and beat Prendergast to the ball, kicked on and was only just denied an excellent score by the diving, scrambling Crowley.

Somehow, at the end of another manic, five-minute stretch, Ireland remained 24-13 behind. It would be another minute and 40 seconds before they were restored to 15 men.

The miracle in Dublin was that Ireland were still in this most one-sided of fights, heading into the final moments. Rónan Kelleher took a quick-tap penalty, five metres out from the Springboks’ tryline, with 77:20 on the clock. Had Ireland manufactured a try, they would still have been in with a chance of victory. Andy Farrell’s side huffed and puffed but, ultimately, got stuffed.

The foundation of South Africa’s win was built around their fearsome, remorseless pack…a baker’s dozen of granite grafters that ground Ireland to dust, then stamped on the dust.

Ireland started the second half with only 12 men, yet out-scored South Africa 6-5 in that period. All they finished with were moral victories as Farrell declared himself “unbelievably proud” of the fight shown by his men. The Irish crowd that flooded out of the stadium and down Lansdowne Road were left to complain about refereeing calls and non-calls, ask when Joe McCarthy would be back and worry about Andrew Porter and the Irish scrum.

The foundation of South Africa’s win was built around their fearsome, remorseless pack. With 72 minutes played, a graphic flashed up of the game’s four leading contenders for Man of the Match. Two were backs. If there was any justice, they would have filled the screen and stretched the graphic to 13 – the starting pack, Wilco Louw, Gerhard Steenkamp, RG Snyman, Kwagga Smith and André Esterhuizen. A baker’s dozen of granite grafters that ground Ireland to dust, then stamped on the dust.

Mike Ross can empathise with the Irish front rows that started and finished that set-piece shellacking by South Africa. Ross faced the Boks on four occasions in his 61-cap Ireland career, winning and losing two apiece.

“My last game for Ireland was against South Africa,” he recalls. “I was up against ‘Beast’, Tendai Mtawarira. I was trying everything that I could but his power was such that when he just turned it on, I was being put to the pin of my collar just to survive.”

Several of the South African backs – Willemse, Libbok and Damian de Allende in particular – were quite demonstrative and in the faces of Irish players, and fans, during Saturday’s 24-13 win. It was noticeable, though, how the Springbok forwards were not jawing or celebrating when turning the scrummaging screw on their opponents.

“Yeah,” Ross agrees. “Their forwards are not really like that. Beast definitely wasn’t. He just got about his job. Some of the English teams, I used to find, would let you know all about it, if they were on top. South Africans tend to just get about it, and are quite polite and respectful, after. You can share a beer with them.”

By the time the penalty try happened, and Andrew Porter was off, the weight difference was nearly 150 kilos. It just compounds, pressure after pressure.

Following South Africa’s win, their first in Dublin since 2012, I was in touch with one of the Springbok forwards, noting their set-piece supremacy and sending on my congratulations. Thanking me, he added, ‘Scrums was nice, at least for us!’

Ross was at the game, but went back over the full match on Monday to get a clearer idea of how South Africa had bossed the scrums. There were 16 scrums in total (not including resets) and 12 were Springbok put-ins. From that dozen, they won eight penalties, sent Porter and Paddy McCarthy to the sin-bin and claimed a penalty try.

“The main difference was the Ireland pack’s weight,” Ross explains. “With James Ryan in it, was 916kgs, give or take a kilo or two. South Africa were 948kgs, over a 30-kilo difference there. Significant. When we get into the black period, when Ryan was sent off (and Bundee Aki filled in), it was down to 902kgs. Nearly a 50-kilo weight difference. By the time the penalty try happened, and Andrew Porter was off, the weight difference was nearly 150 kilos. It just compounds, pressure after pressure.

“Most of the damage was done, as far as I can see, by Thomas du Toit or Wilco Louw after him, getting into the joint between the hooker and loosehead – so, Dan Sheehan and Porter – and Malcolm Marx was also doing damage there. They were almost isolating that joint, and once you break that, you break the scrum.”

“A lot of the time,” Ross continues, “the South African props were hard on the angle, too. Personally, I’d be delighted to see an Irish prop going in at that angle and being rewarded. It’s great if you can get away with it, you know? On a couple of occasions, it was very clear and obvious that they were driving up and out to the left. If you look at it, it’s right there. But they were winning the engagement, which makes it easier to go forward and paints a good picture to the ref. If you are refereeing to the letter of the law, you reverse one or two of those (calls). It got into that snowball effect – giving up penalties, so you’re losing props and giving up more men. It was not going to get any better.”

The more I looked at it, the more I was impressed by Marx. He is a scrummaging beast.

There was one moment, just after Tommy O’Brien had been replaced by Crowley, when Tadhg Furlong felt Ireland should have won a scrum penalty near the Irish line. It was a photo finish, though, to see what hooker popped up first, and referee Matthew Carley safely opted for a reset. That was as good as it would get for Ireland – a nearly penalty. “The more I looked at it,” says Ross, “the more I was impressed by Marx. He is a scrummaging beast.”

“Without Joe McCarthy,” he adds, “Ireland are without an out-and-out tighthead lock. The other best scrummaging lock, James Ryan, was sent off. We were left with, essentially, two lineout locks, Tadhg Beirne and Ryan Baird, who both cover six. No disrespect to them, but if you could pick a prime pack for scrummaging, they wouldn’t be the second-row pairing you’d choose.”

There had been surprise, in some quarters, that the ballast and experience of Iain Henderson was not selected on the Ireland bench. Instead, Farrell went for Cian Prendergast, more of a back-row that moonlights at lock. The coach was in a damned-if-you-do situation here, though, as he needs to blood younger players with an eye towards the next World Cup. “It was almost a perfect storm,” Ross reasons. “From a South African perspective, they did exactly the right thing. If you have your foot on someone’s throat, you keep it there. If your opponent is hurting, keep doing what’s working. I was actually amazed that we did not lose by more. A lot of credit must go to the Irish lads for knuckling down, with 12 and 13 men, and battling.”

Much of the focus, in the aftermath of a second tough November loss, will be on Porter, who was penalised four times and sent to the sin-bin. Teaming up with Marx, Du Toit and Louw gave the Leinster loosehead a working over. That defeat will be the lowest Porter has felt since Wayne Barnes found fault with his scrummaging during the 2023 World Cup quarter-final loss to New Zealand.

If you were designing your perfect prop, and put all your points into scrummaging, that’s what you’d get with Wilco Louw.

“I stood up for Andrew at the time,” says Ross, “because he wasn’t rewarded for dominance, even though it wasn’t always legal. On Saturday, South Africa were rewarded for dominance when they were not always legal. If you want to encourage that kind of thing, well, reward it.

“Andrew was up against two massive props that are about 135 kilos each. If you were designing your perfect prop, and put all your points into scrummaging, that’s what you’d get with Wilco Louw. Then they have some proper monsters in the second row – Eben Etzebeth is one of the best out there, and you have RG Snyman coming on. By the end of the match, the South Africa pack was 963kgs and Ireland were 887.”

“It’s worth noting that Ireland handled the South African pack well, before,” the retired tighthead adds. “We didn’t get dished up by the French scrum or English scrum. The Irish scrum hasn’t been that bad. Some days it goes against you. You are off by a few per cent and it all builds. That will hopefully serve as a reminder that there is work that needs to be done.”

There has been a lot of talk, since Saturday, on the national airwaves about depowering the scrum. Off The Ball discussed straighter scrum-half feeds, so the hooker should have to hook the ball back, while Today FM suggested that teams should not be allowed to request a scrum when awarded a penalty. “Be careful what you wish for,” warns Ross.

“If you think back a few years, Leinster were playing La Rochelle and Uini Atonio was on. Big man, brilliant scrummager. Who did they target to score a try against? Garry Ringrose ran around him for a score. If you take the big bodies out, to try and depower the scrum, you then don’t have guys for the likes of Cheslin Kolbe to run around. You also go away from what makes rugby great – it’s a game for all shapes and sizes.

“You can’t have one team with a really good scrum and try to legislate them out of it. How about you guys just get a bit better?”