IRELAND, with a performance of growing authority and excellence, dismissed South Africa from their presence to get their autumn campaign off to a spectacular start.
South Africa arrived in Dublin in decent nick off the back of a draw with Australia and a narrow defeat against New Zealand in their last two Rugby Championship matches. They had quiet hopes of catching the Irish unawares but finished a distant second.
Before the game their coach Allister Coetzee had ventured the view that Ireland were Europe’s All Blacks and you wondered briefly if he was, perhaps, just engaging on a charm offensive, but not a bit of it. The Irish put South Africa away with the minimum of fuss.
Ireland against the Boks has become a fixture with real meaning and intensity in recent years and all hail that.
Their Test series last year had a bit of everything including a first ever win on South African soil for the Irish down in Cape Town when they played the majority of the match with 14 men after the dismissal of CJ Stander.
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Four-try David calls the shots for Bears
MILLIE David helped Bristol blow Leicester away after scoring four of their 10 tries at Welford Road.
Scott-Young keen to follow his father
TYPICAL of most Australians, Scott-Young Angus has fairly sunny disposition and the loose forward is confident that Saints can soon start to turn things around on the road.
When value for money is not part of the deal
ENGLAND'S bench strategy against New Zealand - goodbye \"bomb squad\", hello \"squib squad\"-has been investigated, psychoanalysed, convicted on all charges and mercilessly sentenced by the entire rugby world and its maiden aunt, so there is no earthly point in returning to the scene of the crime.
'I want to prove my worth to Bath'
OUT-OF-FAVOUR winger RuBath aridh McConnochie is hoping to use the Premiership Cup to lay down a challenge to Johann van Graan and make his selection claims impossible to ignore.
Townsend: We'll have to be at our very best
GREGOR Townsend may have several wins over South Africa on his CV as a player, and one as an assistant coach.
Gatland's a facing big day at the office
WARREN Gatland has known plenty of huge fixtures during his coaching Grand Slam career games, Six Nations title-clinchers, Lions series deciders and World Cup semi-finals, plus European and Premiership finals.
Ireland all at sea as McKenzie pulls the strings
SOME games live up to their billing and others don’t. This fits firmly into the second territory with a subdued Ireland falling a long way short of their world No.1 status while New Zealand, you sense, were often struggling to engage top gear themselves for long periods of the match.
More heartache for England as Aussies steal it at the death third attempt the odds
THE Wallabies had the last waltz in a match of extraordinary ebb-and-flow drama at the Old Cabbage Patch, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat with an audacious, blistering injury time try by winger Max Jorgensen.
Cunningham-South gunning for Boks
CHANDLER Cunningham-South is aiming to be a big hit against the Springboks on Saturday after adding New Zealand to his highlights reel.
Baxter backing Slade to adapt to changes
EXETER are confident that the decision to change their defensive system will not jeopardise Henry Slade's place in the England side.
