Cape Town – It was a case of so near and yet so far for the Springboks, who went down 19-16 to Ireland despite a late second-half rally at the Aviva Stadium.
There were tries for Franco Mostert and Kurt-Lee Arendse, but the South Africans missed a couple of kicks at goal, while Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli also made life difficult in Dublin on Saturday night.
Here is how we rated the world champions…
Cheslin Kolbe: 4
A difficult night in a new fullback position. Kolbe found it tough to win those high-balls, he seldom had the room to launch counter-attacks from the back, and then he was entrusted with the goal-kicking, which he battled with. Loses an extra point for receiving a yellow card following a tip tackle on Mack Hansen.
Kurt-Lee Arendse: 6
Hardly got the ball out wide, and had to keep himself busy with chasing kicks and making his tackles, which he did well – especially the low ankle one on a charging Peter O’Mahony close to the tryline. Arendse kept his composure to finish off a late try.
Jesse Kriel: 6
An improved defensive performance from the Bok No 13, with a couple of big hits – the one on Robert Baloucoune was special – helping to put pressure on the Irish attack. Didn’t have much of an impact going forward, though, with one grubber kick in particular not well executed.
Damian de Allende: 6
The Bok No 12 kept the Ireland backline busy with his strong runs up the middle, but is he overdoing it by battering into defenders almost every single time? Of course he’s playing to instructions from the coaches, but sometimes you’ve got to have the courage of your convictions in the heat of battle. Imagine if De Allende had to sometimes go one channel wider and look to offload in the tackle?
Makazole Mapimpi: 6
Like Arendse, the ball didn’t go much to the Bok left wing. But Mapimpi is a cool operator and added some bite to the defence out wide with his space to close down the Irish backs – with one devastating tackle on Hugo Keenan leading to a penalty – while he ran hard when chasing kicks.
Damian Willemse: 5
The Stormers star will be castigated by his critics for missing his second penalty at touch, but then suddenly Cheslin Kolbe was given the goal-kicking duties, while captain Siya Kolisi opted for touch instead of going for posts a few times as well – if Willemse wasn’t carrying a slight injury, he should have continued to kick at goal.
Yes, there was the missed penalty kick to touch, and a few charge-downs as well – one of which nearly led to a try to Dan Sheehan, who knocked on over the line.
But Willemse did a number of good things too, such as taking on the defence with his fancy footwork, finding a few excellent touches, and trying hard to create space for his outside backs – although he could have also looked for a couple of drop goals.
Jaden Hendrikse: 4
The Bok scrumhalf wasn’t helped by Amashukeli’s leniency towards the Irish at the breakdowns, where he allowed them to disrupt the South Africans by being in the way and coming in from the side at mauls too.
But Hendrikse is a much better player than what he showed in this game. He needs to be more decisive and clear the ball quicker from rucks and scrums – he was replaced by Faf de Klerk after he was caught in the ruck and the ball squirted out, and Ireland pounced to score via Mack Hansen – while he didn’t relieve much pressure on Willemse with his boot either.
Jasper Wiese: 5
The Bok No 8 put in some massive hits throughout to quell the Irish attack, but his team needed him to make a much greater impact with ball-in-hand. There was one memorable charge forward, but Wiese is renowned for his robust carrying, and must get himself into position more often to take his team over the advantage line.
Pieter-Steph du Toit: 7
This was arguably Du Toit’s best performance of 2022. Although still not close to his 2019 World Player of the Year levels, the blindside flank got stuck in as a ball-carrier, and chased down Ireland’s big-name loose forwards as well with his typically relentless work-rate.
Siya Kolisi: 6
The Bok captain was his usual busy self, helping to slow down Ireland’s ruck ball, securing his own team’s breakdowns, and putting in his fair share of tackles.
But Kolisi needed to speak to referee Nika Amashukeli a bit more as the Boks were on the wrong end of a number of questionable decisions, while it was a bit debatable when he opted for touch with a few penalties instead of going for further three-pointers.
Lood de Jager: 5
Missed a tackle on Conor Murray after a lineout inside the Bok 22 in the first half, but did the hard yards in the tight-loose before going off with what looked like a serious shoulder injury after 35 minutes.
Eben Etzebeth: 6
Won a few tap-backs in contesting up-and-unders, and got in some hefty shots in defence and carrying the ball. But Etzebeth was beaten in the air by Ireland No 5 James Ryan at a five-metre attacking lineout just before halftime.
Frans Malherbe: 4
Although he wasn’t always at fault as the referee made some dodgy calls, the Bok No 3 had a rough old time in the scrums, where Ireland No 1 Andrew Porter earned a few penalties by ‘walking around’ in the set-piece.
Malcolm Marx: 5
The Bok pack’s ‘action man’ wasn’t his usual influential self against the outstanding Ireland hooker Dan Sheehan. Marx wasn’t able to find his lineout jumpers on a few occasions, and he was caught in possession at the back of a few mauls.
Marx carried strongly around the fringes and put in some telling tackles, although there wasn’t the customary three or four breakdown steals that we are used to seeing.
Steven Kitshoff: 5
Was relatively solid in his scrum battle with Tadhg Furlong in the first half, and made some metres around the corner as a carrier. But the Stormers stalwart is a big part of the Bok pack, and wasn’t quite able to stamp his mark on proceedings.
Best off the Bench – Willie le Roux: 8
The 33-year-old fullback was the top South African and produced a vintage cameo when coming on for Arendse, which saw Kolbe move to right wing. Suddenly the Boks came to life on attack, with Le Roux calling the shots by dovetailing at flyhalf with Willemse – his grubber kick in the build-up to Mostert’s try was excellent – as he brought direction in the closing stages and nearly engineered a comeback victory.
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