Dominant Springboks win with plenty to spare after bruised Ireland left drowning in card farce

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The Springboks celebrate Cobus Reinach's try while, inset, referee Matthew Carley brandishes the James Ryan red card.

The Springboks celebrate Cobus Reinach's try while, inset, referee Matthew Carley brandishes the James Ryan red card.

Rassie Erasmus has finally got the Springboks the win in Dublin that they had craved since 2012, but the dominant 24-13 victory his team secured was greatly helped by the incredible number of cards shown to a befuddled Ireland.

Referee Matthew Carley brandished five yellow cards, the first for James Ryan getting upgraded to a 20-minute red card. It meant that at one stage of the match that the Irish were defending with 12 players against 15 and the pressure inflicted on them was too hot to handle.

It wasn’t until the 78th minute that the Springboks encountered the wrath of the English referee, but even then the yellow card shown to RG Snyman was rescinded for an earlier offence. There was a yellow after the next play ended, Grant Williams finally departing to the bin, but that didn’t result in a Irish consolation score.

We had made reference in our Planet Rugby match prediction piece on Friday about how, in the Springboks’ only win in the last five encounters against Ireland, it was an early try in Pretoria in July 2024 that got them going, and that a similar momentum creator would be required in Dublin. They delivered and they ultimately went on to enjoy a comfortable four tries to one win.

Beautiful attacking play

They got going quickly with a beautiful attacking play that ended with full-back Damian Willemse getting in at the corner with a cool one-handed finish. He was carrying the ball in the wrong hand – his right – which should have allowed a defender the chance to make a last-gasp intervention.

However, Sam Prendergast wasn’t close enough to make a telling impact and the unconverted try was gleefully celebrated, not only by the players but also by the huge contingent of Bokke supporters in the Aviva Stadium stands.

Ireland could have no complaints about that fourth-minute concession of an unconverted try, but they were fuming not long after when referee Carley, who was a card-wielding nuisance in last weekend’s Wales-Japan match, wielded influence following an incident on the wing that resulted in a dust-up between various warring players.

Somehow, Carley and his team of footage-reviewing officials were left “not convinced” that there were no arms used when Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu clattered into Tommy O’Brien with the Irish threatening the try line.

On the previous two Saturdays, the touring Springboks had seen red with Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert given their marching orders in France and Turin, but there was no similar sanction in Dublin as the referee decided on a penalty only.

The Irish would have felt hard done by, and that annoyance was added to when they failed to score off the resulting kick to the corner. They tried but they eventually ran out of room on the other side of the pitch with O’Brien back in possession and the ball was turned over at the ruck he carried to.

What followed was a period of nip-and-tuck exchanges before the contest took a wicked turn. Prendergast had a seemingly straightforward penalty kick, but the chance rattled the left-hand upright and rebounded into the arms of Irish winger James Lowe.

That was the prompt to go through the phases. A Josh van der Flier carry caught the eye, as did the meaty finish provided by Tadhg Beirne that sparked a celebration. What had also caught the eye was the needless ruck clear-out in between from Ryan, who dived off his feet and into the prone Malcolm Marx at a ruck.

It was inevitable that Carley would review the incident, and the outcome was no try and the sin-bin for Ryan. That happened in the 20th minute and six minutes later, it was the South Africans who were denied a try they had already gone and celebrated.

Ireland gifted possession to the Boks with O’Brien kicking out on the full and the move it led to ended with Boan Venter touching down. The problem was that a pass from Jasper Wiese to Ruan Nortje in the build-up had clearly gone forward, meaning the visitors hadn’t built on their five-point advantage.

Instead, they had to wait until the 34th minute to extend that lead. By then, it had been announced by the referee over the stadium PA system that the Ryan yellow had been upgraded to a 20-minute red card by Dan Jones, the official in the foul play review bunker.

After O’Brien’s head clashed with Canan Moodie’s head, an incident where the decision was just a penalty, the Springboks got to work on the Irish scrum. That build-up of pressure eventually resulted in Cobus Reinach going over on penalty advantage for the converted score that made it 12-0.

This was accompanied by a yellow card for Prendergast, reducing Ireland to 13 players, but they incredibly quickly produced their best moment as Dan Sheehan blasted over after an excellent breakaway from the maul from Van der Flier.

Getting to the interval just 12-7 in arrears would have been huge for Andy Farrell’s team, but they were soon plunged back into scrum hell where the ante was only added by Erasmus deciding to bring on his two sub props.

Yellow cards followed for Andrew Porter and sub Jack Crowley, who came on due to O’Brien needing a HIA after his clash with Moodie. While the arrival of Cian Prendergast as a replacement with the 20-minute elapsed meant it was 12 versus 15 and not 11, Carley went on to award a penalty try for another scrum infringement and leave South Africa 19-7 up.

Sam Prendergast’s yellow expired shortly after the break to make it 13 versus 15 players, and a penalty kick cut the margin to nine points. However, that reduction was short-lived as Jamison Gibson-Park was superbly handed off by Feinberg-Mngomezulu when attacking off scrum ball.

It was an example of the youngster’s unexpected sheer power, and his stylish running after he left the Irish scrum-half on his backside was also lovely.

The only solace to Ireland going 10-24 behind was that their other two yellow cards now expired, so it was finally a 15-on-15 encounter for the first time since Ryan got expelled around 30 minutes earlier.

Further encouragement came when Sam Prendergast stepped up on the kicking tee to slot a 56th-minute penalty and leave 11 points between the teams, and a Cian Prendergast poach further enlivened home fans when it seemed the Springboks were set for their fifth try.

Ireland continued to defend courageously, even after sub loosehead Paddy McCarthy was sin-binned following another scrum penalty, but the match was gone from them even though they finished it with a long spell in the South African 22.

The teams

Ireland: 15 Mack Hansen, 14 Tommy O’Brien, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris (c), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Ryan Baird, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 James Ryan, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Dan Sheehan, 1 Andrew Porter
Replacements: 16 Rónan Kelleher, 17 Paddy McCarthy, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Cian Prendergast, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Craig Casey, 22 Jack Crowley, 23 Tom Farrell

Springboks: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Cheslin Kolbe, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Ruan Nortje, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Boan Venter
Replacements: 16 Johan Grobbelaar, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Andre Esterhuizen, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok

Referee: Matthew Carley (RFU)
Assistant Referees: Karl Dickson (RFU), Christophe Ridley (RFU)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (RFU)
FRPO: Dan Jones (RFU)

Internationals