South Africa produced a rousing second half revival as they came from 16 points down to beat Ireland 32-26 on Saturday to level the three-match series at 1-1.
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The home side, jeered as they went into halftime trailing 19-3, ran in four tries in the second half in a furious onslaught to set up a series decider in Port Elizabeth next weekend. Ireland won the first test in Cape Town last Saturday.
Paddy Jackson had kicked Ireland into an early lead at Ellis Park and tries from Devin Toner and James Heaslip gave them a 26-10 lead with 30 minutes to go before South Africa put aside a error-driven performance to clinch a narrow victory.
Debutant Ruan Combrinck sparked the comeback before Warren Whiteley, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende all went over to rescue home hopes.
taylorman
Roar Guru
Some thinking is the comeback might have been helped by the effect of the altitude on the Irish, who are not used to playing there as SH sides are. Back at Port Elizabeth and sea level will help this week if indeed that was the case.
Jimmy out of country
Guest
BiltongBek is on the money! I watched a recorded version of this as I wasn't going to get up at some unearthly hour after last week's performance. I'm sorry to say that the Boks are no more! They should get on with it and change the name to Proteas or Duikers or something that reflects where SA rugby is now. SA is going to be embarrassed in the RC this year, more so than before. I've watched all the southern hemisphere teams play and even Australia at their worst this weekend will still beat the Boks. The Jaguares are not playing good rugby, but once they don that Puma jumper, its another animal. A kiwi mate of mine once said that the boks seem to grow another arm & leg when the don the bok jumper, this weekend he said its not happening anymore, there is no longer any passion. AC will have to pick form players and eat some humble pie and go speak with Johan Ackerman........ Time to forget about the overseas players, just have a look at the NZ model. (By the way, they also have ruby league as competition to union to contend with).
mania
Guest
tbh, im happy the boks are back. that first test was an anomaly and simply a case of 1st test rustiness the 2nd game is what I expect from the boks. RC is gonna be interesting. aus and boks will be out to prove themselves big time vs the ABs. redemption will be achieved if they beat the ABs
You are going to have to set your pass mark higher than the Boks my friend.
mania
Guest
d4m u are a hard marker biltongbek well aura is a load of BS anyways. everyones always saying the ABs have lost theirs. boks are not 'run of the mill' . boks are still the team the ABs need to beat in order to get a pass mark. boks are still the team that ABs measure themselves against. that last 20 mins was a classic example of how to dig deep and not give up. and I didn't think they were desperate. they came across as calm with a belief in themselves.
No mania it is not unfair. Boks struggled with execution and accuracy right through that tournament, their discipline at times were poor, they had no creativity on attack, barely got past Wales, showed no passion or hunger against Japan, got humiliated by Argentina with a passionless performance during the Rugby Championship. They were inexcusably poor against Wales end of year in 2014, they were completely outwitted by Ireland in 2014. Was never going to win against New Zealand as they didn't even pretent to play with ball in hand. Again showed no urgency, passion or hunger against Ireland last week, their first 60 minutes in this match was so dire I switched the tv off before I broke it. 20 minutes of desperation is not going take away from the fact that the Springboks are just another run of the mill international team that can on their day lose against just about any team. Their aura is no more, the transformation quotas have just hastened the fact that the Springboks are now just another pretender.
mania
Guest
biltongbek - thats unfair. boks played well at the WC. they got a good kick up the pants by japan but then played the rest of the tourney with brutality and accuracy. the first test...well im not sure what went wrong there but boks have more than redeemed themselves after that comeback in the 2nd. I'm not sure JPPeitersen should be winger. a bit slow imo and needs to move into centres. boks acquitted themselves well and typical of a boks team. dug deep and never gave up.
Maori sidestep
Guest
Me thinks what they say about the French 14 destroying SA rugby may have some truth to it. The bloody bull politics isn't helping either.
Androidangler
Guest
win not due to AC's couching but rather the attacking mentality and never say die attitude of lion players. AC not acknowleging this is worrying. He said its not lions but SB so from that i guess he will continue picking out of form players contibuing with Kolisi malherbe and mvovo
Does 20 minutes of desperation make up for the rubbish we have come to see and expect from the Springboks over the past 19 months? No it doesn't, because we will still revert to type, play conservative rugby, coach mediocrity and kickathon rugby. Nothing will change. Apart from the desperation of the last quarter, this is Springbok rugby at its worst, the last time we saw this was in 2003
Brett Susan
Guest
Yeah no now is getting carried away wit this win by any means and what you are seeing is simply relief. Relief in that we won and relief that this team has shown some signs of what they can do. One thing no one has mentioned is that the Captain must have really inspired his troops.
taylorman
Roar Guru
26-10 down at 61 minutes to win...amazing effort. Very in Springbok like to do either...be behind that far, or come back from that far. Great effort. Series is still alive, and Bok rugby gets a reprieve. Good stuff. Hard luck Ireland. Interesting week ahead.