Rory Keane reports from Johannesburg
IRELAND ARE PREPARING for an almighty backlash from the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday, says Jamie Heaslip.
As Joe Schmidt’s side target a first-ever series win against South Africa, they know they will be facing a wounded Springbok outfit who will be looking to avenge their 26-20 defeat at Newlands.
And Heaslip, who played at Ellis Park in the victorious third British and Irish Lions Test in 2009, is fully aware of the challenge.
“It’s going to be such a cauldron and really exciting especially with the proud support that South Africans bring to these games and then just Irish people, I don’t know where they come out from but they always turn up somewhere anyway and you can always hear them,” said the Ireland number eight.
“The other team that got beat out the gate comes flying back and even in tight games where one game might be tight the first week, the next game is blown wide open.
“So, when you play these internationals back-to-back, with all the analysis that goes in and the knowledge that players have of other players of what attacking and defensive coaches of both sides are learning from that first game coming into the second game, it poses all sorts of different challenges.
Joe Schmidt’s side continued preparations at St David’s Marist School today. Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO
“But at the essence of it, international rugby still boils down to the same thing which is the team that makes the least amount of mistakes is usually the team that comes out with the right outcome.”
Ireland’s defence and decision making was outstanding at Newlands with Heaslip, Jordi Murphy and makeshift flanker Andrew Trimble putting in huge shifts after CJ Stander’s dismissal in the 23rd minute.
For Heaslip, keeping the Boks scoreless while Robbie Henshaw was in the sin-bin was the highlight of a memorable performance.
“With 14 men it was great that there was a focus on that kind of task by task, moment by moment challenge that presented itself be it a scrum and trying to problem solve around that on both sides of the ball. With our lineout, trying to problem solve around that and Dev managed that really well with the lineout.