KEY POINTS:
Ireland 32 South Africa 15
DUBLIN - An experienced and impressive Ireland side easily accounted for an experimental South Africa in Dublin this morning - the fifth away defeat in a row for the Springboks.
The 32-15 victory was Ireland's second straight win against the former World Cup winners but only their third victory in 18 meetings between the sides.
South Africa, playing around with their lineup ahead of the World Cup and with a debutant back three, got the first points on the board thanks to a penalty from centre Andre Pretorius but from then on the momentum was almost entirely with the home side as the Springboks missed an incredible 30 tackles.
Tries from winger Andrew Trimble, flanker David Wallace and prop Marcus Horan helped to put Ireland deservedly up 22-3 going into halftime, with the rest of their points coming from Munster first five-eighths Ronan O'Gara.
Excellent tries from Francois Steyn, making an impressive debut on the wing, and Bryan Habana narrowed the gap for South Africa in the second half but assured kicking from O'Gara and a late try from Shane Horgan kept the home side safely out front.
South Africa started strongly, and looked to run the ball from the outset, but seemed to run out of ideas out wide and looked scrappy in defence.
Ireland went 7-3 up five minutes in with a try from Trimble, easily converted by fly half Ronan O'Gara -- who scored all 17 points in the win in their last meeting two years ago.
Smart running from Trimble and nifty passing by Shane Horgan delivered the ball to Wallace on the wing for an excellent try midway through the first half although O'Gara missed the conversion.
Prop Marcus Horan drove over the line for a try converted by O'Gara to make it 22-3 going into the break.
Both sides missed penalty chances in a scrappy second half as the wind made things difficult, leaving the halftime score unchanged until the 65th minute when debutant Steyn touched down in the left corner.
Pretorius, who had a lacklustre kicking game, missed the subsequent conversion.
Habana, playing out of his usual wing position, added another five points with a storming run but it was too little too late and Ireland replied quickly with a try from Horgan after an outrageous blind pass by Brian O'Driscoll to finish on a high.
"We dominated the game with and without the ball and I was extremely happy how we upped the tempo when we needed to," coach Eddie O'Sullivan told the BBC.
"There were a lot of collisions out there and we got a bit tired but it was nice to finish off with a good try. We scored four tries against South Africa so you can't complain very much about it.
"It's nice to live up to the favourites tag, they had a few inexperienced players out there and you have to weigh that into the game but all in all I was very happy with that 80 minutes."
Captain O'Driscoll said: "It was a big performance, what pleased me most was the way we finished.
"This side matured an awful lot during the summer, people were patting us on the back but we had three losses.
"Now this has reaffirmed our belief that we can go out and beat anyone in the world.
"With the platform we had and the quality of possession we got we were able to throw the ball around and I thought the passing skill level and the lines of running were good."
South Africa coach Jake White, who left a dozen players at home, said: "When we got our youngsters onto the ball early on I thought it was going to be an exciting day but we missed a lot of tackles and all credit to Ronan O'Gara and Peter Stringer for getting out of their half with their boot in those windy conditions."
- REUTERS
