Ireland edged a physical encounter against South Africa in the pool stage of the Rugby World Cup, with Johnny Sexton starring in a 13-8 victory
at the Stade de Francestill has five more weeks to run and this was “only” a pool game. It is almost impossible to conceive, even so, of a heavier-duty occasion than this impossibly physical Saturday-night smackdown in Saint Denis. The intensity was off the scale and when the final whistle sounded it was as much a case of counting the survivors back in again as totting up the actual points.
It would also have been a different story had South Africa kicked their goals. Three penalties and a conversion went astray and in a ferociously close game it was to prove the only significant difference between the sides. As a result, unless Scotland have other ideas, there is now every chance of Ireland coming up against New Zealand in the quarter-finals with France facing the Boks. What a compelling pair of fixtures those would be.
Never before, certainly, has the cathedral of French rugby resembled such a super-sized greenhouse. Inside the stadium it felt as if U2 had come to town and the first big tackle of the night, by a pumped-up Rónan Kelleher on Damian Willemse, duly set the tone. Rugby has its imperfections but this was as thunderously gladiatorial as any sporting event this year.
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