Ireland's Mack Hansen scored the opening try of his side's win over the Springboks. Photo / AP
Ireland's Mack Hansen scored the opening try of his side's win over the Springboks. Photo / AP
The All Blacks will likely face Ireland in the quarter-finals of the Rugby World Cup after they defeated the defending champion Springboks 13-8 at Stade de France in Saint-Denis this morning.
Ireland extended their test-win streak to 16 against South Africa and look set up to top PoolB, boding well for them avoiding fellow European powerhouses France in the next stage of the tournament and instead likely meeting the three-time champion All Blacks.
The winners of Pool A, which features the All Blacks, France, Italy, Uruguay and Namibia, will play the runners-up in Pool B - now likely to be South Africa. France currently lead Pool A with 13 points, followed by Italy on 10, and New Zealand with five. New Zealand face against the Italians on Saturday and are expected to win comfortably. Should that come to fruition, it would take an unlikely French loss in their last pool match to Italy on October 7, for the Kiwis not to finish the pool second.
It comes after the Irish claimed a historic series win over the All Blacks last year with a 32-22 victory in Wellington in July 2022, the fourth loss in five tests at the time. New Zealand won the first of the three tests in the series (42-19 in Auckland) but Ireland got the better of the All Blacks in Dunedin (23-12) and Wellington (32-22).
In a low-scoring but tense match, both Ireland and South Africa scored a try but the latter missed four of five goal kicks, missing out on 11 points whereas the Irish converted all of theirs.
Ireland's fans react during the Rugby World Cup Pool B match between South Africa and Ireland. Photo / AP
Right winger Mack Hansen scored Ireland’s try after 33 minutes, the first scored against South Africa this tournament, and Springboks left winger Cheslin Kolbe dotted over early in the second half.
After Jonathan Sexton’s penalty put Ireland ahead 10-8 after an hour, his replacement Jack Crowley converted a 77th-minute penalty to leave South Africa needing a try to draw and converted try to win.
With moments left in the match, the Springboks attempted a maul off a lineout but were smothered and couldn’t recycle the ball quickly enough before referee Ben O’Keefe whistled fulltime.
Ireland beat the defending champions for the second time in 10 months and for the first time at the Rugby World Cup.
After this morning’s match, Ireland captain Johnny Sexton said it was “a huge day for Ireland.”
“This crowd is incredible, how many people turned up today, I don’t know how we do it time after time. We didn’t want to let them down.
“It was a real arm wrestle to dog it out with a team like that. It is a testament to the team and staff.”
South Africa captain Siya Kolisi was proud of the way his side played but said they left too many opportunities out there.
“We would have loved to win but it was a great game, an intense game. Congrats to them. They played really well. They were able to hold the pressure in the first half and they got the try ... It was a great test for us in the group.”
- With AP
Luke Kirkness is an Online Sports Editor for the NZ Herald. He previously covered consumer affairs for the Herald and was an assistant news director in the Bay of Plenty. He won Student Journalist of the Year in 2019.
