South Africa 27 Ireland 20 at Loftus Versfeld — LIVE

The Springboks beat Ireland 27-20 in the first of two Tests at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday.

In a thrilling match, the Boks edged ahead early on and never gave up their lead, and while Ireland stayed in the fight throughout the match, the Boks did enough to get their revenge on losing to the Irish in the pool stages of the World Cup in France last year.

The Boks scored two tries, through Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cheslin Kolbe, and the Irish got three, through Jamie Osborne, Conor Murray and Ryan Baird.

Handre Pollard kicked two conversions and two penalties, but also missed three shots at goal. Ireland’s Jack Crowley kicked a penalty and a conversion.

This was a first win in four matches by the Boks against Ireland, going back to 2017.

Below is how The Citizen reported on the match on Saturday.

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The Boks picked 20 World Cup winners in their team for Saturday’s match, with just three bench men, namely Gerhard Steenekamp, Salmaan Moerat and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, not part of the World Cup squad.

Willie le Roux started at fullback, while Handre Pollard won the race to be the team’s first choice flyhalf.

Up front, Bongi Mbonambi started ahead of Malcolm Marx, while Kwagga Smith played eighthman with Jasper Wiese suspended.

Ireland coach Andy Farrell picked Osborne to make his debut at fullback, while Craig Casey was preferred to veteran Murray to be flyhalf Jack Crowley’s No 9.

TEAMS

South Africa: Willie le Roux, Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Handré Pollard, Faf de Klerk, Kwagga Smith, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (capt), Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Frans Malherbe, Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche. Bench: Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp, Vincent Koch, Salmaan Moerat, RG Snyman, Marco van Staden, Grant Williams, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu

Ireland: Jamie Osborne, Calvin Nash, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, James Lowe, James Crowley, Craig Casey, Caelan Doris, Josh van der Flier, Peter O’Mahony (capt), Tadhg Beirne, Joe McCarthy; Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan, Andrew Porter. Bench: Ronan Kelleher, Cian Healy, Finlay Bealham, James Ryan, Ryan Baird, Conor Murray, Ciaran Frawley, Garry Ringrose