We will fix things for next week, promises O’Mahony

Ireland captain Peter O’Mahony was proud of his side for remaining resilient in South Africa’s lions den and staying in the fight until the death in Pretoria with late tries from substitutes Conor Murray and Ryan Baird.

O’Mahony is hoping they can carry that momentum into Saturday’s Test in Durban and draw the series.

He said: “It was a tough battle and we knew it was going to be very difficult with the quality of South Africa.

“There are a lot of positives to take out of our performance but little bits here and there, against a side as good as this, they are going to punish you. We’ll go and have a look, fix a few things and look forward to next week.

“We knew with Tony Brown coming in (new attack coach) there would be a little bit of a tweak. They are playing a bit more expansively, a bit more wide, they have more than capable players to do it. They put us under a bit more pressure certainly with their depth out the back of the line, we’ll have a look at that.”

South Africa captain Siya Kolisi was delighted to keep the good times rolling in front of their fans and extend their winning run to six Tests since they lost to Ireland in the World Cup pool match.

He said: “It’s amazing. I can’t explain how great it has been to just come back and be with the boys. This team is so special. What we did in 2023 was for the people, so to come back and play here is really special.

“Tony Brown has been amazing and the nice thing about our group, you can win the World Cup but everybody adapts. Tony came in and changed the way we play and everybody has adapted, we are going to get better in that but he’s been really good for us as a group.

“You can’t buy the leadership in our group. There are so many players who can take that role and Pieter-Steph (du Toit) in particular has done that brilliantly.”