The Hurt Locker: Ireland v South Africa. Saturday 23rd September. Stade DeFrance

So 7:1.

Gimmick or legitimate tactic?

For me it's a gimmick. South Africa didn't back their attack against us so tried to kick their points (including some very challenging long range kicks). That they went with such a forwards oriented game plan and didn't bring a reliable kicker is amazing to me. Yes Pollard is going to play against Tonga but therein lies the other problem. South Africa didn't back their attack against us, but they're bringing in an out half that is less of a play maker than the incumbent. My confidence really started to grow when I saw Faf stepping up to take that first long range kick. The first one was a mark of respect for Ireland's defence but the second one was drifting into 'not backing ourselves' territory, especially given it was so wayward.

I said in the intro that unless South Africa REALLY felt they had our number at lineout time the 7:1 split against a strong kicking team like Ireland didn't make much sense. South Africa really had our number at lineout time. Or we had our own number - am not entirely sure but if you told me we'd lose 5 of our own lineouts in the first half and nothing else I'd have presumed we lost the game.

Ryan was as critical at the breakdown as you would have expected, but I think some of the line out issues are with him. Not just in terms of calls, but either his jumping has deteriorated or the extra weight he's padded on has made it harder for the lifters - he's just not getting up as fast.

With a functioning lineout we'd have really hurt South Africa in that first half. We were moving them around nicely through phases and finding gaps - but we spent so much of the game recovering from line out failure that we couldn't impose ourselves as consistently as we're accustomed to.

That very nearly could have been another La Rochelle, and to be honest I think the experience of that game played into things here. Shortening the lineout and using that fast throw to POM at 2 or 4 seems very hard to counter but we kept good variation all the same.

Our exits were much better today critically (Lowe and Sexton's line kicking have clearly gotten further work in the build up) but our kicking in general was as good as you would have hoped even when under pressure. Again - get the lineout working and we're getting so much more from those early exchanges, and South Africa didn't seem to kick a huge amount. They generally tried to hold onto possession so kicked when they had advantage or ran it in and that was fine with Ireland, got their back three nice and fatigued for the final 20 with no replacements to come on. We looked comfortable defending later in the second half despite the 'Bomb Squad'.

Sexton having the second most tackles is not hard to believe. They ran at him a good bit. But it's still hard to believe. 38.

Thought he played as well as I've ever seen him.

Ringrose had a very physical game. Bundee is unplayable. Back three are just an absolute joy to watch.

But it really was the pack - incredibly physical and hard game for the full 80. Lot of very tired and sore bodies today, no more so than Andrew Porter. All had moments, no one less than a 7 but on the day I have Ireland down generally as a 7/10.

We squandered good possession in the 22 and we're a clinical team, we would have converted some of that into points. We can be second best at the set piece but not to that extent and the coaches have been on notice of this for a good while now. If we fail to progress because of the lineout it would be a very foreseeable and disappointing failure.

Our general skill and fitness level is better than SA. Our basic structures in attack and defence are better than SA. We should be able to replicate that performance and beat them, but controllable variables like the lineout going wrong can change things rapidly.

Otherwise we look very, very good. We stood up physically and if either team at times looked like they were wilting a bit it was South Africa, particularly towards the end of the first half. I think we probed the fringes better but our attack wasn't as cohesive under the extreme pressure of SAs line speed. When you look at Hansen's score - Sexton had virtually no space or time to work the wrap and only just pulled it off.

Their game changes now if they go with Pollard. If things play out as predicted that France game will be very interesting presuming he starts.

From an Ireland POV I think we go and absolutely steamroll Scotland now. I think they'll go into the final round with a tall task and if we open up a score or two early on it very quickly becomes insurmountable. A statement win that as a blow out isn't overly taxing would be perfect before NZ.

Yeah it was frustrating but you could see how dejected SA were after the game. They threw the kitchen sink at us and even with our set piece well below par we still won. That has to be very concerning.

Something else occurred to me. I bet our kickers have been practicing kicking under the new clock system and I presume we've primarily been practicing how to drag the shite out of it when needed. Crowley kicked with literally 2 seconds to spare on Saturday, I wonder was that block down against Samoa the price we paid to get maximum return from late game delay tactics!