By Jack Hoyle, Date:7/7/13
12 man South Africa romped to a 42-24 victory against Ireland, thanks to an inspired Jean Coetzer performance to claim their first win of the tournament.
South Africa’s bright start in their last match against Wales came to nothing as they ended up losing 30-10. However, they were able to take advantage of early dominance against Ireland as they scored three tries in the opening 13 minutes to set the tone of how the game was going to be.
Jean Coetzer was in inspired form in the first half as he scored two brilliant individual tries and also set his team-mates up for two tries, whilst also making two conversions. The Irish defence were struggling to cope with his intelligent running as South Africa started to put points on the board racing to a 14-0 lead.
South Africa had a man sin-binned in the last match for an illegal shoulder charge and lacked discipline again in this one as Hans Du Plessis was shown a red card for kneeing his opponent.
Although his team was faced with disciplinary action again, Jonathan Soares said: “We couldn’t worry about the red card. It happened and the boys put it behind them and if we let it get to us we would have probably lost the game.â€
Ireland took full advantage of having the extra man as they scored almost immediately after the incident. James Kelly produced a neat grubber kick for Paul Power to score in the corner, making the score 14-4.
Despite being a man down, South Africa continued to be dominant in the match as Ireland were struggling to match them physically as they were hit with a number of huge tackles, forcing a number of handling errors. This led to South Africa scoring two more tries, making the score 24-4 at half time.
South Africa started the second half as they ended the first as they scored two more tries through Pretorius and Harmse, but their man disadvantage started to show as Ireland were showing promising signs of a comeback. Luke Malone, Sean Rennison, Luke Dalton and Chris Hall all scored in quick succession to make the score 36-24.
But it was as all in vain as South Africa managed to score the last try of the game through Rudolph Prinsloo, as he charged through the defence to score under the sticks, converted by Hein Olivier to make the final score 42-24.
Ireland vastly improved their performance in the second half and can be proud of the efforts to try and get back into the game, but ultimately it was South Africa’s power and pace that won them the match.
Soares was delighted with his team’s passion to win as he said:
“The guys are playing for their families and the badge they wear on their heart. They weren’t willing to get themselves down again like the Wales game and i’m immensely proud of their performance today, which we hope to carry into the next game against the hosts England.â€
Ireland Team
Starting: 1. Joseph Mulhern 2. Paul Power 3. Sean Hogan 4. Vincent Morris 5. Shane O’Reilly 6. James Kelly 7. Shane Kelly 8. Ger Arthurs 9. Zac Jungmann 10. Sean Rennison 11. Chris Hall 12. Luke Malone 13. Oliver O’Mara
Interchange: 14. Kenneth Savage 15. Luke Dalton 16. Stephen Costello 17. Joseph McSwiney
Tries: Power, Malone, Rennison, Dalton, Hall
Conversion: Savage (2)
South Africa Team
Starting: 1. Allan Kasselman 2. Chester Mbekela (Captain) 3. Hein Pretorius 4. Jean Coetzer 7. Hans Du Plessis 9. Andre Loader 12. Gerhard De Wet 13. Neels Venter 14. Jean-Di Oosthuysen 15. Jean-Pierre Nel (Vice Captain) 18. Christo Joubert 19. Johan Harmse 20. Rupert Wells
Interchange: 6. Hein Olivier 10. Christo Louw 16. Rudolf Prinsloo 22. Nardus Raubenheimer
Tries: Coetzer (2), Harmse (2), Mbekela, Pretorius, Oosthuysen, Prinsloo,
Conversion: Coetzer (2), Olivier (3)
Sending off: Hans Du Plessis
Referee: Paul Stockman
Man of the Match: Jean Coetzer
