"Incredible belief" - Tadhg Beirne proud of how 12-man Ireland stayed in the fight against Springboks

The on-field action was overshadowed by the litany of cards that was brandished throughout the match, as referee Matthew Carley had a busy evening in Dublin. Carley brandished Ireland with five on-field yellow cards, with lock James Ryan's bunker review also upgrade his offense to a 20-minute red card. Ireland spent the majority of the match undermanned against Rassie Erasmus' side, with the hosts at one stage dropping down to 12 men as James Ryan, Sam Prendergast and Jack Crowley were all in the sin bin.

Speaking after the match, RUCK asked Ireland lock Tadhg Beirne if he had ever trained under the scenario of a three-man deficit. Whilst the Munster stalwart shared that the side had previously run situational sessions to deal with yellow cards, Beirne cannot remember a time the Ireland squad had rehearsed for such a chaotic test match.

"I don't think we've trained with 12, to be honest, maybe 13 or 14. 12 Is a new one for me, not that I can remember anyway. But, you do your best to prepare for these situations. There's a lot of moving parts when these things happen. In terms of positional, especially in the second row, back row, all these players who haven't been running line outs, all this kind of stuff.

"There's a huge knock on effect within the forward group, and same with the backs. So, I thought everyone stepped up unbelievably well in those areas, and we figured a lot out. It was a good showing from us, in terms of our fight, when we were down to 12."

The opening dismissal from the Irish squad saw James Ryan handed his marching orders mid way through the first half. Beirne's second row partner was rightfully dismissed for making contact with the head of World Player of the Year Malcolm Marx, yet the implications of the offense then cancelled out Beirne's subsequent score. The British & Irish Lions Iron Man wrestled for the hard yards and broke across the Springboks line for a close range try, albeit only to have it chalked off by Ryan's trip to the side-lines.

"No, I didn't [know] at the time. No, then we got back to halfway and we looked up and we'd seen the review. Unfortunately, these things happen in rugby, and I'm gutted for James, these things do happen. So hopefully, he'll go back and get that review and we'll see what happens.

"It's just sport. That's the way the game has kind of gone in terms of these decisions. Some go for you, some go against you. You get timing or something a split second wrong, and you could be in the bin or have a red card for 20 minutes. You just have to deal with it and get on with it. We did our best to do that, but as I said, discipline around the park probably let us down and gave them [South Africa] access."

Beirne added that despite a mixed bag of results this Autumn Series, there is still an abundance of belief as we approach the 2026 Guinness Men's Six Nations. Kick off to Rugby Greatest Championship is now less than 10 weeks away, with Ireland opening their campaign against France under the unusual setting of the Thursday night lights of the Stade de France.

"We lost, but I think there would be a lot of belief after today. The sheer character that was shown today, we felt like if we put a capped XV on the field, we would have been right in that game and maybe able to turn them over. I think from our first game of the series to that game, I think it's been huge steps every game. So I think we'll we'll certainly be going into the Six Nations with big belief, and if we can fix up a few of those things we're talking about earlier, then we'll put ourselves right."

"We were probably disappointed some of the penalties we gave away. But saying all of that to come out in the second half with 12 men and probably play most of the game with 14, and to win the second half was incredible character.

"Incredible belief by the boys, by all of us out there to stay in it. Despite the score, we still give ourselves a bit of a shot with 10 minutes to go. Obviously we're disappointed we couldn't get the try at the end there and have one more crack with them. But, you've got to give them credit, their world number one for a reason. Incredible defence, particularly there at the goal line, so fair play to them."