SA v Ireland test 2

Huge win. The idea that we came from behind and won the final 20 minutes in SA without an absolute rake of important players is seriously impressive. Farrell must be an incredibly effective coach and leader for that group of players.

Healy, Herring, Bealham, Baird, Blade, Frawley, McCloskey and Osborne….nobody would have given a line up with all of those players on the field a hope against a loaded SA team who have emptied the bench.

Probably said elsewhere but I thought there is huge credit due to the forward replacements. They didn't have the eye catching cameos of Frawley or even the noticeable contribution of Blade but they did their jobs and I think the scrum was improved with them on the field. They conceded one penalty where the AR penalised Bealham but, to my eye, Steenekamp had gone to ground first on that one. Baird genuinely looked like he wanted to murder the AR after that one. And then they locked out the key scrum inside their 22 to set up the game winning drive.

Most of us were somewhat indifferent to POM being a sub option but it genuinely worked out perfectly. Just when we were completely rattled and falling away, we had his introduction. He didn't do anything spectacular but he did all hit bits well and the side were clearly calmer after his introduction (in fairness it coincided with the return of Doris also).

I kinda do have an issue with it. He said he spotted nothing at the time. PSDT and DDA were roaring at him that there was obstruction. He was pressured into checking something that didn't happen after stating he saw nothing happen. He had been asked to check things previously and waved them away such as Crowley getting hit off the ball and the McCarthy non-offside.

And there are stranger things that have happened than a TMO then telling the ref that Doris motions into Kolbe and he needs to look at it. Absolutely nothing in it and a dive but we've seen bizarre decisions in the past.

I thought it was understandable and right that he checked something they were not happy with when it was related to a game winning drop goal. And to the TMO credit it was cleared up almost instantly. That's an example of the system working well.

In the Crowley incident, I thought I heard him confirming that it had been checked and there was nothing to address.

https://www.sarugby.co.za/match-centre/match-centre-detail/?id=671e8e5a-284c-43ea-9812-0c6bed3282f2

https://www.irishrugby.ie/live_matches/match-centre-south-africa-v-ireland-second-test/

Just from an analytical perspective, its interesting seeing the difference between Ireland's version of he stats versus South Africa's.

Take James Ryan for example: Ireland have him down for five carries for zero metres, whereas the Boks have him down for 21 metres from the same carries. In general, the Boks seem to have a more lenient or inflated measure for metres made (Doris goes from 57 to 108)

I also find it interesting how Irish stats can have Doris down for 4 tackles while the South African source has him down for 15. Its an odd discrepancy between the two.

Just an observation re: match stats.

Must be from people who've never kicked (drop or otherwise) a rugby ball.

Been marinating on this for a few days, but I'm still perplexed as to why the McCarthy knock-on/offside penalty wasn't reversed. It could have been a massive moment if we had gone on to lose the game by 2 points.

The referee apparently couldn't hear the TMO. I'm not clear if the ref was aware that the TMO was trying to get his attention, and waved it away, or whether there were no comms. Even if it was the latter, the AR's have TMO comms and could have drawing the refs attention to it.

I don't have an issue with the initial mistake by the ref to call a penalty (they're only human), but it was absolutely clear and obvious on the replay that it was a bad call. For the on-field team to let it slide like that is baffling.

The ball very clearly hits the ground.

I saw a few comments on youtube pages as well, in case anyone is wondering if the ball did hit the ground on both…

Top one is the end drop goal as you can see Kolbe on the ground to the right, bottom one you can see the score. You can see why the second one was a bit wobbly, the ball seems to be at a bit of an angle and the first one the ball is dropped straight down.

Honestly feel that is a potential citing. For the sake of balance, I think there's a potential case for Doris to answer too after seeing all the angles of him dropping his weight onto Marx's leg.

But yeah, the head collision was fairly obvious in real time when watching live. I think most people thought there was an instant need for it to be looked at it again.

Pollard, I think.