South Africa v Ireland result: Springboks retain world number one spot with first test win

James Lowe of Ireland beats the tackles of and Jesse Kriel and Cheslin Kolbe of South Africa. Photo / Getty Images

South Africa 27 Ireland 20

The World Cup-winning Springboks have retained the number one world ranking with a convincing win over Ireland in the opening test at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria.

It’s South Africa’s first victory over Ireland since 2016.

Kurt-Lee Arendse opened the scoring for South Africa in the third minute as they took a 13-8 lead into the break.

The turning point came in the 58th minute when Irish winger James Lowe crossed over in the left-hand corner to level the scores, giving Ireland the chance to take the lead, only for the TMO to take the try away due to a ruck infringement in the lead-up.

Seven minutes later Lowe then gifted South Africa a second try.

Cheslin Kolbe pounced on a mistake by Lowe who attempted to keep the ball in play, only to throw it into the path of the Boks winger. Again TMO wasn’t in Lowe’s favour as replays couldn’t show strong evidence he had a foot out of play which would have cancelled out the try.

That gave South Africa a 20-8 lead with 10 minutes but it was a frantic finish to the test as Ireland showed some fight closing the gap to five points five minutes later when Conor Murray scored.

However South Africa, down to 14 men, secured victory with a penalty try in the 78th minutes.

Ireland’s Ryan Baird scored on fulltime to make it a respectable scoreline for the tourists who will look to level the series in Durban next week.

Irish halfback Craig Casey had a strong showing but was stretchered off with a neck injury following an off-the-ball tackle by RG Snyman in the second half.