Winners and Losers from South Africa v Ireland

The Springboks surprised Ireland with 80 minutes of running rugby with the visitors staying in the fight the entire game. Here are the winners and losers.

Winners:

Jesse Kriel:

Kriel has put together a run of incredible performances dating back to RWC2023 and before. He was perfectly suited for the Springbok gameplan today and as usual was relentless on defence. He earned a well deserved MOTM.

Craig Casey:

Casey did not look out of place against the Springboks and took control of a lot of what Ireland did well. He was exceptionally good at kicks to the corner when the Springbok wingers were up

Pieter-Steph du Toit:

du Toit, as usual, was the games top tackler with 18 completed tackles but where he did catch Ireland by surprise was by fulfilling the Siya Kolisi wide attack role. He did not replace his captain with long runs on the wing he worked in conjuction with Kolisi with both flankers wide on the wing often.

Caelan Doris:

Doris was by far the best performing loose forward for Ireland and our performed Kwagga Smith. Dorris balanced attack and defence well and made a match high three turnovers on the night.

Cheslin Kolbe:

Kolbe was a menace on the field. He chased everything and was rewarded with a try after Lowe's poor attempt to keep the ball alive fell for the speedster. The Springboks have dangerous wingers but it is clear Kolbe is the first choice 14.

Losers:

James Lowe:

Lowe had a poor game by his standards, noteably he was responsible for gifting Cheslin Kolbe a try as he tried to keep a Handre Pollard kick to touch in field. 

Kwagga Smith:

Smith was out of sorts, it was clear he was playing a different role with Kolisi and du Toit camping out wide he started the game with two errors which lead the crowd to cheer his every carry and catch.