South Africa vs Ireland - First Test live
South Africa 13 Ireland 8
This Tony Brown South African attack has them playing some good stuff. They’ve matched Ireland for possession - something normally very unlike South Africa - while they’ve gone to width aplenty, looking to get the ball in the hands of their dangerous wingers. It worked brilliantly three minutes in for Arendse’s opening try, and it nearly worked later in the half for Kolbe.
Ireland have done a decent job of spoiling a handful of rucks but, when they have the ball, they look a touch devoid of ideas when running into brick walls.
Half-time: South Africa 13 Ireland 8
Doris gets away with a fairly illegal breakdown turnover. Pearce was blindsided and Ireland get the ball off the park with the clock in the red.
40 mins: Pollard misses a kick! It is some distance out, but at altitude, not really. 15m in from touch, just inside the Ireland half, Pollard pushes the penalty wide.
39 mins: That’s a stupid penalty from Porter. He comes through the middle and barges into de Klerk. It’s a simple call for Pearce as he pings him for playing the nine.
38 mins: Brilliant defence from Doris, Crowley and Aki. They hold up de Allende in contact and then somehow turn the ball over on the way to the deck. Two minutes until half-time, they play it safe, Lowe clearing.
TRY JAMIE OSBORNE
Osborne is over and the try has been given. We will check upstairs, though. There could have been a foot in touch from Lowe.
It’s a superb strike after average enough build-up. South Africa dominate as Ireland stay narrow in attack. Eventually, Crowley flings it wide. Sheehan’s behind the back offload to Lowe creates half a gap, but Kolbe is there. Lowe is about to be shunted into touch but his ability to stay in touch and fling the ball back inside is remarkable. Osborne is on hand to gather and dive over in the corner.
Try stands! Crowley pulls the touchline conversion wide.
South Africa 13 Ireland 8
32 mins: Crowley misses it! It wasn’t from a central angle out to the left, but he should be making that. He’s snatched at it, pulling it to the left of the upright.
Ireland get another penalty though as Kriel gets caught on the wrong side of the breakdown, slowing up Casey’s pass off the deck. This time, Ireland go to the corner.
31 mins: Ireland finally get their hands on the ball and it leads to a chance for points. Doris and van der Flier make excellent decisions when carrying to find soft shoulders. Osborne then follows up well, only to become isolated. Mbonambi goes after the ball but ends up disrupting off his feet. Crowley lines up a penalty.
28 mins: Andrew Porter is penalised for trying to disrupt Faf de Klerk at the back of the ruck but doing so while diving off his feet. The penalty is right in front of the posts and Pollard makes no mistake with the kick.
South Africa 13 Ireland 3
27 mins: Ireland are feeling the pressure. Doris’ turnover at the breakdown is opportunistic but brilliant. However, the work is undone by Beirne flinging a blind pass back into the 22. Crowley retreats to the bouncing ball before clearing to touch. However, it was carried back thanks to that loose Beirne pass, meaning the lineout is back inside the Irish 22.
24 mins: CHANCE! Ireland just about hang on. They get caught again a touch narrow on the short side. Du Toit feeds Kolbe and you would back him to score. Lowe slows him up before Crowley brings him to deck. Crowley then works through the ruck, countering through Kriel before Casey follows up to force a spill from de Klerk. You don’t expect the halfbacks to counterruck for a turnover, but Ireland will take it.
23 mins: Interception! Sheehan reads a le Roux pass - which was forward - well and plucks it out of the sky. Do you know what, given his speed, a run in under the sticks isn’t beyond the bounds of imagination there. He can’t keep his feet, though, and we don’t get the Sheehan vs Arendse footrace we all wanted.
21 mins: Scrappy enough stuff. Crowley goes for a high bomb from inside his own 22 and it’s well placed. Nash tries to compete but it hits his leg. Osborne then knees it forward before someone in an Irish shirt knocks on.
19 mins: An ironic cheer goes up as, this time, Kwagga Smith holds onto the restart safely. De Klerk clears to touch and Ireland make a mess of the lineout. Sheehan isn’t sure of the call and accidentally dummies a throw. That’s not allowed, free-kick South Africa.
18 mins: Pollard lines up the kick from a central position just inside the 10m line. That’s an easy one for him, South Africa’s lead is extended.
South Africa 10 Ireland 3
17 mins: James Lowe gets away with one as his attempted interception hits the floor but it goes backwards. If it went forwards, we were in deliberate knock and yellow card territory. As it happens, the penalty does come when Joe McCarthy gives away a soft one for not rolling away.
15 mins: There’s a big collision in midfield between Henshaw and Kolisi. It looks like there was head contact and Luke Pearce immediately stops the game. It was Kolisi’s shoulder which went into Henshaw’s chest, neck and chin. He’s on his feet but the medics are out to look at him. Henshaw stays on the field, no HIA.
No foul play, the game will restart with a scrum.
13 mins: Ireland are on the board! From a central position just inside the Springbok half, Crowley curls that one inside the uprights.
South Africa 7 Ireland 3
12 mins: Beirne takes a big shot in midfield. Smith is there hunting for the turnover and he comes away with the ball. Fortunately for Ireland, Ox Nche is judged to have been in the way on the floor. Penalty for not rolling and Jack Crowley will have his first kick at goal.
10 mins: Pollard goes to the boot, trying to catch Osborne on the turn in the backfield. They are targeting the young man. Lowe is back there, though, to help out, dotting the ball down over the line for a goal line drop.
For the second time today, Kwagga Smith spills the restart. South Africa then give away for not releasing the ball on the floor.
9 mins: Uh oh. A nervy moment from debutant Osborne. Ireland get a huge shove on the South African scrum but de Klerk and Kolbe combine to get the ball away and clear. Osborne should just let it bounce into touch, but he tries to gather and he ends up spilling it into touch. A gift of a lineout inside the Ireland half.
7 mins: Knock on! Ireland get their wires crossed. O’Mahony’s pass off the bottom of the ruck is poor, hitting McCarthy in the face. The lock tries to regather but can only spill it inches from the line. Chance gone. Porter and Mbonambi get involved in a mini scuffle which forces Luke Pearce to chat to the two captains.
6 mins: This already has the makings of a classic. Ireland almost hit back with a try. Osborne goes close but is ankle tapped - the chance came after Kwagga Smith spilled the kick off into touch. Ireland get a penalty 5m out and they will tap!
TRY KURT-LEE ARENDSE
3 mins: Fewer than two minutes on the clock and South Africa are in. They go from side to side with ball in hand, ultimately working an overlap for Arendse. He steps inside Osborne beautifully, sending the debutant to his knees as he tries to make a covering tackle, before crossing over virtually untouched. Pollard converts.
South Africa 7 Ireland 0
1 min: Unsurprisingly, that was a belting anthem from the ‘Boks even if the decision to let an out of tune crowd to sing on their own took away from what was a spine tingling start. Any way, Englishman Luke Pearce is today’s referee. He blows his whistle and we’re underway via the boot of Jack Crowley!
The view of John O’Sullivan, our man at Loftus.
The players are out. Full house. Time for the anthems. In the line-up, Andrew Porter is already bleeding. Not sure what that’s about.
The soundtrack to Rocky is blaring out at Loftus Versfeld. They also have a burly bloke with a UFC belt shouting down the microphone at the crowd. They really are doing absolutely everything possible to turn this into a quite literal fight.
Now the band is playing Zombie - Ireland’s de facto rugby anthem. Mind games or proper hospitality?
On a more serious note, the below analysis is an intriguing look at Joe McCarthy’s first full season as an international player. Over the course of the year, he’s not been as strong at clearing out ruck ball as say, James Ryan. Number one on the list of ways to beat Ireland is to slow up their breakdown. But at the same time, does Big Joe make up for his slightly weaker rucking with his stronger carrying and tackling?
The below piece delves into the numbers.
[ Ireland’s Joe McCarthy conundrum: can he do the business at the breakdown? ]
These guys don’t need any more off-field noise. Don’t fall into the trap of building the hype... Oh go on then!
In case you were wondering, it’s a belter of a day in Pretoria.
Ireland's fly-half Jack Crowley warms up ahead of the first Rugby Union test match between South Africa and Ireland. Photograph: Marco Longari / AFP
Rassie Erasmus has become a bit of a cult figure in South Africa. I suppose winning back-to-back World Cups would do that to a bloke, but his social media behaviour and general sh*thousery also helps. Like him or love him, he’s great TV.
Albert Heenop explains how the cult of Rassie was born.
[ View from South Africa: Rassie Erasmus has transformed Springboks in weird and wonderful ways ]
South Africa head coach Rassie Erasmus. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images
Time to begin the spate of pre-match reading. First up, John O’Sullivan, our man in South Africa, interviewed Josh van der Flier in the build-up. He was good value, explaining how locals confused his surname to the point of speaking Afrikaans to the Wicklow man!
[ ‘The hotel staff started speaking Afrikaans’ - Josh van der Flier shrugs off local confusion as Ireland eye up Springboks ]
Ireland’s Josh van der Flier arrives ahead of the first Test vs South Africa. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
A view of Jamie Osborne’s jersey ahead of Ireland's clash with South Africa. Photograph: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
As for Ireland, they have opted to blood some inexperienced players. Well, it likely has been forced upon them given Jamison Gibson-Park’s injury and Hugo Keenan’s decisions to play Sevens at the OIympics.
Craig Casey starts at nine while, in what was a major shock, Jamie Osborne is given an international debut at fullback despite not having played a professional game there since 2022. He impressed for Leinster this season, but at centre, not in the backthree. Farrell has been an Osborne fan for some time and has taken this opportunity to get him into the team given Keenan’s absence.
After months of build-up and verbal grenades thrown predominantly from the South African camp, the rugby is finally upon us. South Africa haven’t beaten Ireland since 2016, which, one would suspect, is the source of at least some of the animosity. You can tell just how badly the Springboks want to win this series by looking at the team they have selected.
Historically, Rassie Erasmus has used games after World Cups to scope out his next raft of talented, large men. This time around, that isn’t the case. All of the starting XV are World Cup winners. Of the entire 23 players selected, 20 were involved in France last year.
The notable inclusions are that of Kwagga Smith at number eight - he replaces the now retired Duane Vermeulen from the World Cup final - and Wille le Roux. He is at fullback in place of Damian Willemse. Le Roux’s kicking masterclass was a big reason why the Bulls recently beat Leinster at this venue in the URC semi-finals, a game which could well have influenced selection here.
Hello all and welcome to live coverage of summer rugby! Nathan Johns (@nathanrjohns) here to guide you through all the action as it happens from Loftus Versfeld stadium. It’s South Africa vs Ireland in Pretoria, the World Champions on their own patch welcoming the second best ranked side in the world.
Kick-off is at 4pm. We’ll be building up to the action until then.
