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| Jamie Heaslip © Gallo Images |
Ireland No 8 Jamie Heaslip was full of praise for the Boks' physicality at the end of a long season after his team’s 15-10 win at Croke Park in Dublin on Saturday.
Ireland sent the Boks crashing to their fourth loss in five matches on this northern hemisphere tour and to their third straight loss in Dublin.
Despite having to defend for almost the entire game the Boks denied Ireland a try and gave another heroic defensive display but it was the only part of their game that was better than Ireland’s.
“South Africa are not exactly ladyboys are they?” Heaslip said. “They are big boys and they hit hard, man. They are big and mobile and they have a good work rate so you have to meet them.
“They run a lot of same-way plays so you have to get at them and make impact tackles, which we did successfully. They didn’t slow down as much of our ball as they wanted to.”
After an acrimonious British & Irish Lions series, of which Heaslip was part, there was a fair amount of ill-feeling between the sides prior to kick-off.
The match didn’t spill over on the field but the sheer physicality of the battle was plain for all to see.
“There was an edge to the game because these boys are world champions and they know how to win,” Heaslip said.
“We met them at the collisions, were physical as well, and won most of those contests in the second half at the breakdown.”
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