Ireland still have a job to do – Toner
WITH his wedding just over a week away, you would think that it would be difficult for gigantic Ireland lock Devin Toner to focus on rugby.
However, the 2.10m Toner says he and the rest of his teammates are not going to take their eyes off the prize like they did in the last quarter of the second Test, as they aim to make history on Saturday against the Springboks (kickoff 5pm).
The teams go into Saturday’s third Test level at 1-1 after Ireland won the first match of the series at Newlands, and the Boks bounced back with a brilliant come-frombehind 32-26 win at Ellis Park last weekend.
Ireland were 20 minutes away from securing their first series victory over the Springboks on Saturday, but blew a 16-point lead in the final quarter.
It will be hard for Ireland to bounce back from the disappointment, and that’s probably why their coach Joe Schmidt has given the players off today to explore Port Elizabeth. He wants them to take their minds off rugby and recharge the batteries. He actually wants Toner to think about what sort of whisky he will be serving at his wedding.
The impressive second-row forward, though, says it’s hard to think about colour schemes and place settings when they have a chance to achieve something special on Saturday.
“I’ve been getting a lot of texts and calls this past week,” Toner said yesterday at the Irish team’s beachfront hotel, which is renowned for hosting wedding receptions. “Of course it’s on my mind, but when it’s time to think about rugby, I will remain focused on that.
“That’s what Joe has made clear to us this week. It’s been a long season. We’re also determined to finish on a high. We have to keep our heads, though, and not let the emotion of the occasion get to us. We still have a job to do.”
But Toner knows it will take more than a trip to the nearby elephant park and some surfing at Jeffreys Bay to overcome the disappointment of Ellis Park. Ireland were superb for 140 minutes of rugby over the first two Tests. They have been smart, have done the basics well and have always been one step ahead of the Boks.
But when South Africa got it right, for basically the first time in this series, the Irish looked rather ordinary in the last quarter at Ellis Park. Suddenly they were missing tackles, not cleaning rucks properly and making silly handling errors.
Toner knows they can’t give the Boks another sniff on Saturday. If they want to win this match, they have to perform for the full 80 minutes of rugby.
“I am not really relishing the idea of going through that last 15 minutes again. We just let them run at us, which we were determined not to do, and we slipped off too many tackles and fell off the contact,” Toner said.
“We must just not let them do that. I am not sure what it was down to, maybe a lack of concentration. But the lesson... is that you just mustn’t give the Boks a chance.”