PAYNE AND HENSHAW CAN BE AT THE CENTRE OF IRELAND’S NEW HARD CORE

Young guns take centre stage as Joe Schmidt’s latest weapons

JOE SCHMIDT has two new problems this morning. There were very few people who could have seen them emerging as issues this time yesterday, but beating the second best team in the world presents those kinds of issues.

His first difficulty will be in trying to talk down his team again. Champions of Europe, they have now accounted for one of the southern superpowers. Playing the poor mouth is not an option now.

The second difficulty is in his team selection for the Test against Australia on November 22 and, to be specific, who he picks in the centre.

Schmidt will have at least two insistent candidates in the pair who started yesterday: Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne were excellent, better than they would have dared believe. Once Payne is cleared to play after limping off in the closing minutes here, he will join Henshaw in soothing fears about life after Brian O’Driscoll.

Henshaw has for years been a notable sporting talent, but before rugby and Connacht won the tussle for his attentions he was a prominent footballer, representing Westmeath up to minor grade. The instincts of those days have not been suffocated by the headfuls of learning required of professional rugby players.

Early in the second half, receiving a pass in space, Henshaw spotted an unprotected plot of green on the right side of the South African 22.

He found it with an unerring kick off the outside of his right boot, the ball rolling to within inches of the try-line and forcing South African full back Willie le Roux to hack it out for safety as Henshaw led the Irish attack party deep into Springbok lands. From the lineout, Rhys Ruddock got his try but it was the pluck and accuracy of Henshaw that made the score.

It bewildered South Africa, who showed little of the attacking pizzazz they spent the Rugby Championship perfecting, relying instead on their well-loved penchant for battering the opposition. It also showed that Ireland’s new centre partnership were capable of more than defence in a game where they were required to prevent more than create.

That is to be expected when the No 2 team in the world come out of the other dressing room at the start of a match, but Henshaw and Payne had a resolute afternoon together, Henshaw on his fourth appearance and Payne making his debut.

The New Zealand-born Ulster player wore a long-sleeved back vest underneath his white Irish shirt distinguishing him from his partner, similarly built in the modern preference for broad-shouldered and wide-chested backline players.

They played alike, too, carrying hard and having to tackle even harder. The old O’ Driscoll-D’Arcy union remained vital for Ireland long after other nations had started picking bigger centres, and they are the inevitable standard against which every other pairing will be rated.

Henshaw and Payne were conventional by comparison but hugely effective. Henshaw, in particular, had some heavy freight running at him, but with 15 minutes remaining he managed one of the highlights of his day, stripping flanker Marcell Coetzee of the ball after he was slowed by Paul O’Connell.

South Africa have supposedly realised they cannot become world champions through their favoured way of trampling everyone else into the mud. And Heyneke Meyer has decided to try and introduce subtlety to a culture that takes enormous pride from its physical supremacy.

One result was a scintillating win against New Zealand at the Rugby Championship, but if the Springboks are willing to adapt new methods they are not about to forsake their crunching old ones.

Much of their play was designed to unleash their physical advantage, through mauls, scrums and pounding pressure close to the Irish line. The weather was one explanation following an afternoon of wicked rain that slicked the pitch at the Aviva Stadium.

South Africans never have to check the opposition statistics to realise they are bigger and stronger, and so they would have felt no pressure in pursuing a plan that was set to pulverise.

This meant Henshaw and Payne spent a lot of their time back-pedalling as part of an Irish defensive effort that was repeatedly resetting, preparing for the next thundering green wave. They had one moment of fleeting severe discomfort, when Le Roux split them with a run from deep early in the match. After that, they coped with every raiding party sent their way.

They benefitted, too, from a teamwide certainty that blossomed into confidence the longer this match went on. Meyer tried to shake inspiration from his bench early in the second half, sending veteran bad guys Schalk Burger and Bakkies Botha into the match.

A try did eventually arrive through a typical close-in drive off a lineout, but Ireland were not rattled: they reacted like Six Nations champions, in keeping with a performance of courage and confidence.

Johnny Sexton was an obvious choice for man of the match, but there were more subtle Irish success stories on display.

This was an evening that produced two powerful new weapons for Joe Schmidt.