Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne may have begun their professional careers, in this country, as fullbacks but both starred in midfield on Saturday as Ireland beat South Africa 29-15.
Ireland opted to kick possession away 27 times to the Springboks’ 18 and earned their win with only 43 per cent possession. While the midfield duo will feature in more dynamic backline moves in the future, Saturday evening required stern defence and total commitment to Joe Schmidt’s cause, and tactics.
Both players got their hands on the ball for straight up carries in the opening four minutes. Ireland’s early tactics involved recycling quick ball, playing two or three phases and Johnny Sexton kicking deep into their 22. Most of the phase play went through the Irish forwards in the opening forays.
South Africa would have been planning for Payne or, most likely, Henshaw at outside centre all week. The Thursday team announced presented an all-new centre pairing but the Springboks did not have to alter their set plans to target the Irish midfield. Their first spear at the Irish backline went straight up the middle, sucked in both centres and left the home team in trouble.
On nine minutes, Francois Hougaard purposely skipped his back-row options and set a training ground play in motion. He found Handré Pollard, who in turn linked up with Willie le Roux. The fullback raced diagonally towards the left-hand corner and both Henshaw and Payne were drawn in. Jan Serfontein sprinted in the opposite direction and le Roux found him with a reverse pass. Rhys Ruddock dragged Serfontein down but his midfield partner, Jean de Villiers, was in support.
The Boks’ threatening move eventually broke down on the right wing as Serfontein failed to locate Cornal Hendricks with a pass. Ireland won their line-out and mauled themselves out of trouble – they were seven from seven from attacking mauls. The Irish midfield had been exposed but the pair’s evening improved markedly from that point.
At 19 minutes, sparked by le Roux, South Africa threatened outside the Irish 22 only for Payne to wrap up Pollard well and cease their momentum. The Kiwi’s ability to sniff out scoring opportunities – as he does with regularity for Ulster – came to the fore, two minutes later, as he showed up in support of Rob Kearney after the Leinster fullback had scorched five Springboks on the counter-attack. He presented clean ball for Conor Murray. The scrum-half found Sexton on the left wing and, when he was not released in the tackle, Ireland had a penalty to go 6-0 up.
South Africa pressed for the final 15 minutes of the first-half and the Irish midfielders were not used in their only significant period of possession – Sexton cross-field kicked for Devin Toner. Henshaw and Payne combined for eight second-half tackles and only missed one. Their biggest contribution arrived a minute into the half. Tommy Bowe claimed his own up-and-under to rouse the home crowd. His kick also drew in le Roux and although Hougaard lost the aerial duel, the fullback (circled below) had left his 22 unguarded.
Again, it was Murray to Sexton before Henshaw hollered for the ball. Upon receiving the pass, Henshaw said post-match, he considered running the ball before looking up and recognising that South Africa had no-one home. His kick to the corner was perfectly judged but it would have been wasted without a strong kick-chase. Ireland’s two centre were in pursuit as le Roux sprinted back to cover:
From the resulting, attacking line-out, Sean Cronin found Devin Toner at the front. The Irish forwards piled up the blindside and Ruddock steamed over to score. Sexton converted to make it 13-3 and Ireland were in the ascendancy.
Payne, who made 25 metres with is six ball carries, looked lively in the second-half (until a sprained foot ended his evening) while Henshaw sought work in the defensive line and teamed up with Paul O’Connell for a crunching tackle on Marcell Coetzee that forced a knock-on.
Addressing his centres’ performance post-match, Ireland coach Joe Schmidt said, ‘I think they both did incredibly well. There was some really physical defence from both players. I thought Robbie gave us gainline and played intelligently. Jared ran a great support line off Rob Kearney… He was that quick to pick him up. That’s the sort of intelligence you want in your backline because we’re very used to having that in our backline. The two of them did a really good job.”
Schmidt made his selection call on the duo last Tuesday. He may be forced to wait for results on Payne’s foot injury before opting to retain or split up the pair against Georgia this weekend.
