Category: Rugby

The Springboks’ bench won a penalty try at the death to settle a thrilling contest between two true heavyweights

The players are making their way out to the field.

They pass under a sign that reads, “Altitude. 1 350m. It matters”.

• South Africa 27-20 Ireland
• Late tries from Murray and Baird not enough for tourists

The Ireland wing James Lowe went from hero to zero as the world champions, South Africa, underlined their status as Test rugby’s top-ranked nation with a gripping 27-20 win in Pretoria.

Lowe produced a sensational offload to set up a debut try for Jamie Osborne and thought he had brought Andy Farrell’s men level with a superb breakaway score in the second half.

Next month’s Test double-header on South African soil will write a new chapter in an increasingly rancorous struggle

No sooner had Ireland claimed a 13-8 win over South Africa in the Rugby World Cup last year – an epic tussle in a tournament littered with all-time encounters – a thumping rendition of the Cranberries’ Zombie rang out around Stade de France. The song’s connections with the Troubles, the IRA and Ireland’s struggle for peace was lost on most South African fans that sweaty Saturday night in Paris. Their primary reaction to Ireland’s adopted anthem was rage.

“What’s in your heeeeaad, in your heeeeeeeaaaaad!” It was hard for them not to feel this was meant as a jibe; that the Irish, who have never seen their players lift the sport’s most glittering trophy, who had never even seen them reach the semi-finals of a World Cup, were rubbing South African noses in their success. That their No 1-ranked team had wormed their way into the subconscious of every South African by relegating the Boks to a stepping stone on their march to glory. The face of Rassie Erasmus, South African rugby’s god-king, said it all. He was seething. What was a friendly rivalry had now become personal.

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