Springboks beat Ireland

Tries from Juan Smith and Gio Aplon added to some fine kicking from Morne Steyn had put South Africa in complete control against an awful looking Ireland team on the site of the old Lansdowne Road, and the Springboks were cruising 23-9 with just 15 minutes to go.

However, the introduction of Ronan O'Gara for his 100th cap helped inspire Ireland back to life as he set up a try for Tommy Bowe 11 minutes from time.

Rob Kearney then went over in the 76th minute but O'Gara missed a chance to equalise as he saw his tough conversion agonisingly hit the post.

South Africa then managed to keep possession for the bulk of the remaining time to pick up a more than deserved victory by a far tighter margin than it should have been.

High ticket prices meant the match was not a sell-out and for most of the match the Irish fans who did turn up must have wished they hadn't bothered.

Ireland, who have now lost four Tests in a row, were completely outplayed for long periods as they made countless errors in nearly all aspects of the game with their ball handling and line-out being particularly poor.

South Africa's conservative, possession first game plan was far more suited to the slippery conditions and with their entire pack dominating, they really should have been more than 13-6 up at the break.

Their opening try came in the 18th minute when Smith went all the way from his own 22 to the try line after intercepting an Eoin Reddan pass off a sloppy Irish line-out.

Jonathan Sexton kicked over Ireland's only points in the first-half, while missing another gettable chance, while Steyn fired over two penalties and a conversion himself.

Early in the second-half Steyn missed another penalty which was a collector's item as it ended a run of 42 successive goalkicks at international level from the fly-half.

Steyn and Sexton did swap penalties though before South Africa scored the try that looked to have sealed the match as Aplon superbly created a running lane for himself off a Zane Kirchner pass to run under the posts in the 64th minute.

That made it 23-9 and Ireland looked finished but as both sides made substitutions Ireland finally started to get things going.

It was O'Gara who created the first Irish try as he kicked the ball over the South Africa defence; the ball bounced up to Bowe and the Ospreys' man ran under the posts for the try.

That got the crowd into things, and the new stadium was rocking when Jamie Heaslip managed to get onto his own kick from his own 22 after a mess-up from Kirchner; Heaslip then burst to the opposite 22 and down there Ireland declined two penalties before getting a lucky try as a speculative pass found Kearney after Aplon made a hash of intercepting it.

However, O'Gara couldn't complete his fine cameo in style as his conversion hit the post and just refused to drop in.

South Africa went back to basics and killed the clock in the final moments to avoid any more late drama as the Irish fans were left wondering why their side only turned up by the time the game was pretty much beyond them.