The Albany Gazette - Farrell proud of Ireland after 'mad' Test with South Africa

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Farrell proud of Ireland after 'mad' Test with South Africa

SPORTS 22.11.2025

Farrell proud of Ireland after 'mad' Test with South Africa / Photo: Paul Faith - AFP

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell labelled the 24-13 defeat by South Africa a "mad" match while his captain Caelan Doris called the Autumn Nations Series Test "chaotic" as they were at one point reduced to 12 men.

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English referee Matthew Carley red-carded James Ryan on Saturday and sin-binned Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy.

Many will feel he should have at least sin-binned Springbok fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu early in the first half when he turned and put his shoulder to Tommy O'Brien's head.

However, the world champions -- whose only defeat on their way to the 2023 world title was at the hands of Ireland in a pool game -- were good value for their victory, recording four tries to the hosts' one.

"It was a mad game," Farrell told Irish broadcaster RTE.

"I have never seen anything like that before and I've seen many things."

Farrell, who insisted despite a disappointing Six Nations campaign and defeats by New Zealand and South Africa in November that the team is in "a good place", said the fact the match ran for over two hours reflected his assessment.

"It says it all that it ran to over two hours," said the 50-year-old Englishman.

"To say it was stop-start is an understatement with all the carry on with the cards, the stoppages for the scrums etc."

Nevertheless Farrell was far from disappointed with his side thanks to their plucky defence which managed to keep their hopes alive of grinding out an unlikely victory.

"My overriding feeling is I am unbelievably proud of the players," he said.

"We were down to 12 men at the start of the second half then 13 and 14 and to come out with a scoreline of 6-5 in the second half, it is still a loss but I am unbelievably proud of that."

Doris, who questioned Carley's call over his leniency with Feinberg-Mngomezulu and was put in his place by the referee, also praised his teammates for their gutsy display.

"It was chaotic for sure," said the 27-year-old backrow forward.

"However, we definitely showed the character we asked for.

"You hope when you show character like that it translates into results but it was not to be tonight.

"I do, though, think that character and guts we showed will stand us in good stead in the future."

(W.Williams--TAG)