Ireland edged the clash of the thoroughbreds on Saturday night at the Stade de France. The world’s top ranked team gritted their way past their nearest rivals South Africa 13-8 to take control of Group B at the 2023 rugby union World Cup.
Something had to give at the Stade de France. The Irish and South Africa had started the tournament confidently. Ireland thrashed Romania 82-8 in Bordeaux in their opening match and followed it up with a 59-16 victory over Tonga.
South Africa crushed Scotland 18-3 in their first game and then pulverised Romania 76-0.
And the titans started furiously in front of nearly 79,000 fans. Manie Libbok opened the scoring after six minutes from a penalty.
And that was it for another half an hour of gripping, relentless raking for territory until Aki Bundee broke clear. His burst took the Irish to the South African five-metre line on the left.
The ball was worked to the other wing where Mack Hansen went over. Jonathan Sexton added the two points for the conversion and increased his points record for his country to 1,092.
Lead
More importantly, Ireland went in at half-time 7-3 up.
Sexton showed him the folly of imprecision kicking a penalty to restore Ireland’s lead. Libbok missed another penalty and Faf de Klerk was equally wayward.
It nearly happened.
“It’s wonderful to win but there’s not much in it between two good sides,” he conceded.
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