You've seen how the South Africa twitter reacted to Ireland's heroic victory in Cape Town, but the fans were much more forgiving than the media.
After Ireland's 14-men hung on to record a wonderful victory, the Argentine U20s piled the misery on by beating the South African U20s.
Credit to the South African media, it wasn't all doom and gloom a la the English football team - they reserved some plaudits for Ireland. Supersport labelled it a gutsy performance for Ireland on a disastrous night for new coach Allister Coetzee.
There really isn’t much positive that can be said about the Boks. They bombed quite spectacularly in several areas, with some players who have featured well in Super Rugby over the past few months, simply unable to transfer that form and confidence when asked to make the step up.
On the Irish cards, Supersport writer Gavin Rich said that he feared what would have happened if Ireland had 15 men:
Had it not been for those cards, for the simple fact is that they were outplayed for most of the time that the Irish were down on numbers.
According to Rich, the Boks were clueless in attack, and had no idea how to take advantage of the extra numbers. Rich was full of praise for Ireland, and rightly worries how Schmidt's men could score ten unanswered points when down to 13 men.
The Irish defence was magnificent and simply didn’t allow the Boks, who frankly looked quite clueless on attack at times, into the game.
Faf de Klerk was a point of contention between South African writers. Rich labelled the debutant scrumhalf as clueless and error-strewn, whilst Rob Houwing of Sport 24 called him the sole bright spark of the day for the Boks.
Houwing hammered the Boks with his player ratings. de Klerk had the highest with 7.5, and only four other players had more than six - one of which was Pat Lambie. Frans Malherbe, Willie le Roux, and Lood de Jager came in for the most criticism, each getting 4.5. If only someone had predicted that.
But no media outlet was as harsh on the Boks as the SARugbymag. Jon Cardelli was as harsh on the Boks as he was complimentary on Ireland, in his column titled "Ireland stun clueless Boks"
It was an insipid and largely rudderless display by the South Africans.
Andy Farrell was given a large part of the credit for the fantastic defensive work, as Ireland "bullied and breach the hosts with ease", showing more initiative in the game - both in attack and defense.
But Cardinelli wasn't done there. His second column, was solely focused on South Africa. The ominous title "Nightmare not over yet", that should give hope to Ireland for the rest of the series.
Cardinelli thinks that the Boks aura is diminishing. The South African public's belief that they can only lose to New Zealand is now in tatters:
Over the past two years, South Africa have suffered landmark defeats to Wales, Argentina, Japan, and most recently Ireland.
Cardinelli reports that the South African pride is hurt, but the majority are "puffed out their chest and declared that ‘Ireland had won their one game for the series’." But he isn't so sure.
The question that so few have asked in the wake of the Newlands Test is this: What would have happened had CJ Stander not been sent off?
If Stander remained on the pitch, and the contest was 15 versus 15, we may have obtained a clearer and possibly more painful answer [of where South Africa are].
Cardinelli is worried. He noted the tones of Rory Best and Joe Schmidt after the game. Of how Schmidt hinted that he still has more tricks up his sleeve.
He evaded the question of whether Ireland had played their best game of the tour.
There's more than a hint that Cardinelli really doesn't rate the Boks, and perhaps has an inflated respect for Ireland. It's almost like he expects Schmidt's men to win one of the two remaining games and claim a monumental series victory.
Now that would be something.
See Also: The Embarrassed And Livid South African Twitter Reaction To Ireland's Victory In Cape Town
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
