IRELAND CAN DARE TO DREAM BIG
Everything is possible now as resolve shown in Boks victory proves they can go all the way
DREAM BIG. A remarkable team earned that indulgence for their country with a phenomenal display of courage and discipline in the face of ceaseless adversity in Paris last night. The noise in the Stade de France in the final moments of this game seemed to vibrate in every atom of the ground, and inside everyone in it, too.
It scrambled the senses – but not of the players in the green shirts who drew on their years of experience to find a composure that was simply remarkable.
When Jack Crowley kicked a penalty with three minutes remaining, the margin went out to five and victory seemed guaranteed.
There was one last grunt from the Bok beast, but Ireland defended their attempted maul off a fivemetre line-out. When the final whistle went, the Irish players looked too wrecked to celebrate.
No matter: the place went berserk on their behalf.
If for a while in the early afternoon, as crowds began to mill around the Stade de France, it looked as if South Africa’s numbers in the stands might match Irish numbers, that uncertainty was cleared up long before kick-off.
Irish supporters were everywhere, and they were on their feet singing Zombie by the Cranberries as green jerseys collapsed into exhausted hugs.
Scotland come next, but it’s the entitlement to dream big off the back of this that is truly thrilling.
The challenges won’t get much easier, but there won’t be many stiffer than what South Africa presented across 80 tight, taut minutes.
Their decision to trust in the mercurial gifts of Manie Libbok at out-half backfired badly as he missed two fateful kicks, a conversion and a penalty. If Ireland do meet the Boks again in this tournament, Libbok won’t be near a kicking tee.
Johnny Sexton will, and after surviving a night when attacking options were limited and when great South African flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit went after him like a bloodhound, the Irish leader can now think of even bigger nights to come. Ireland had faced down the world champions but as significant was the way they withstood their own fallibility.
Because for stretches of the contest both the line-out and scrum came under eyewatering pressure, and it looked as if the story of the game would be contained in the cracks that South Africa exposed.
But Ireland survived, with Mack Hansen’s try on 33 minutes the game-breaker.
This wasn’t one of those games where the drama was in the eye of the specialist know-alls; anyone could see how tight and tense this contest was, and from early on it was clear that the final margin would be desperately tight. Those so exercised by mismatches in this competition might have found some comfort here.
For everyone else, it was gripping, low on scores but barely able to contain all the drama.
There was the will they-won’t they uncertainty around Ireland’s setpieces, with the line-out collapsing, then restored to some semblance of reliability, while the scrum barely survived regular episodes of brutal treatment, before winning a momentous late penalty that allowed Crowley to insure the triumph.
That was, remarkably, the second vital penalty they won off a scrum, an earlier one on 59 minutes allowing Sexton to nudge Ireland back in front.
There were times when it felt escaping the effects of the Springbok set-piece was impossible, when vulnerabilities in the Irish one were so starkly exposed.
Just as it seemed the line-out was in some sort of working order, for instance, the Springboks monstered Ireland at successive scrums, then worked the ball wide and put Cheslin Kolbe over. For
most of the first half, the prospect of Ireland going in ahead at the break – they led 7-3 – seemed a desperate resort to wishful thinking.
But the way they righted themselves after aspects of their game flirted with disaster, spoke to experience and temperament shaped over years of high achievement.
But a lead of any margin was hardearned, given the way fears around their set-pieces were realised.
The line-out wobbled so badly in the first quarter one wondered if the management considered a replacement, given Ronan Kelleher’s horrors.
But a dramatic early intervention was hardly a runner with Dan Sheehan on the bench, returning from six weeks out with injury. To Kelleher’s credit, he found some workable solutions with his jumpers, while his activity in the loose was unrelenting.
This, though, was only one part of the worst-case scenario that was emerging like some horrorscape.
Garry Ringrose, one of the team’s irreplaceable figures, had to leave the field for a HIA following a juddering contact, but he was cleared to return.
Then Sexton got treated for a lower-arm injury after getting in the way of a rampaging run by Damian de Allende.
This was at a time when South Africa were applying relentless pressure, and the first quarter had barely elapsed.
But their clearest sight of the line ended with a Jesse Kriel off-load within inches of the Irish line bouncing off the face of Siya Kolisi, and into the arms of Caelan Doris.
It was, to that point, a rare instance of good fortune and Ireland had the sense to claim it.
They found their way up the pitch through a mighty Bundee Aki break – he was once again outstanding, working wonders off limited possession given his reliance on set-pieces for good ball – and from there South African defenders were increasingly drawn to the pressure points Ireland found close to the line, before Hansen went over in the corner.
His attempt to give Sexton a more advantageous angle with the conversion almost saw him go out over the end-line, but it paid off.
It was another example of a brilliant team maximising their chances.
And it leaves Ireland in a place teeming with precious possibilities.
This will have taken a huge toll, but they will come again.
It’s what they do. It’s all they know. This story has pages left to write. Dream big. It’s the least you owe them.