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28th April 2020
05:41pm BST
"I just remember Besty, before the tour. We had to do media in Dublin and he brought me to one side and said, ‘Aw, man, if we win one Test in South Africa, Cape Town, we’ll lose our minds!’ And the motivation just flowed through me to do my best to win for the team. That was some game."A lot of the focus, leading into the First Test, was on Munster back-row CJ Stander starting for his adopted country back in his homeland. Trimble recalls meeting Jannie Stander, CJ's father, on the morning of the game and how fired up he was for his son, and his Irish teammates, to make their mark. He comments:
"Whatever about, Ultan, how up for the game we were, CJ’s dad was up for the game! I bumped into him in reception, and CJ introduced me. And his dad goes, ‘I swear, we’re going to f*** them up today!' "And that's from a South African, talking about us doing that to the Springboks. I was like, ‘He is massively up for this game!’"Stander was selected at blindside for the game and started well but, with Ireland leading 10-3 after 22 minutes, he was shown a straight card for clattering into Boks outhalf Pat Lambie.
Lambie was sparked out after taking Stander's hip to his chin and was placed in a neck-brace and onto a stretcher before he was carted from the field. Stander, who had been booed off, went to the medic's room almost immediately to check on Lambie's condition.
Murphy took Trimble and Dillane through the next 22 minutes of the match as they were so crucial in Ireland's win.
DILLANE: That was some game. There was 13 men, wasn’t it? CJ got that unfortunate… MURPHY: Yeah, it was 13 men. For the last 10 minutes of the first half you were down to 13 men (Robbie Henshaw was sin-binned). Not only did they not score for that 10 minutes, but Ireland scored a drop goal. And then, two minutes into the second half, Conor Murray scored. That was a huge moment for me. Trimby, do you think that was that a big moment for ye to come out of that difficult 15-minute patch? TRIIMBLE: Yeah, yeah. I think, watching it back, CJ’s red was, by 2020 standards, it probably looks slightly redder. At the time, I was probably thinking, ‘I don’t know about that’, because he was in the air and obviously he can’t change his body position. But Pat Lambie kicked it and then (CJ) took off, targeting his chin with his hip. DILLANE: Yeah, messed him up, like. TRIMBLE: He burst him. DILLANE: Rough. And the crowd… the crowd turned so bad on CJ. It was awful to watch. TRIMBLE: It was sad for CJ because it was a big moment for him, obviously, playing South Africa.As Murphy noted, Lambie took several months to recover from such a heavy KO blow. He missed the remainder of the series against Ireland but returned in October 2016 to play for the Springboks. He suffered further concussions in 2017 and, after a sustained spell on the sidelines, announced his retirement, at the age of 28, in January 2019. Murray's try was converted by Paddy Jackson, who slotted over a 67th minute penalty only to throw an intercept to Pieter-Steph du Toit. The rangy flanker scored under the posts and Ireland led 23-20 with just over 10 minutes to go. Ireland were grateful to Springbok sub Julian Redelinghuys when he conceded his second sloppy penalty, on 76 minutes, and Jackson extended their lead to 26-10.
Still, the South Africans knew a converted try would snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The Irish players had emptied the tank but were still able to scramble and stick tackles in the tense closing stages.
"The last play was huge, as well," says Dillane. "JP Pietersen getting tackled into touch by three of us."
"What was he doing, to be fair?" asked Murphy. "He should’ve scored that. It was the strangest corner flag attempt to finish I've ever seen. He could have just dived into the corner but he aimed at a player and tried to bowl him over with the ball. That's because ye rattled them. You had them rattled early."There were TV replays but each one, as it played out on the big screens, confirmed to the Irish players that they had beaten South Africa on home turf. That historic achievement would be mirrored (though most would say surpassed) when Ireland beat the All Blacks for the first time ever, at Soldier Field, later that same year. 1-0 up in a three-game series, Ireland were flying and they should have clinched it but for a super-sub who liked to call himself 'The Punisher'. That, though, is a tale for another day. WATCH THAT HOUSE OF RUGBY EPISODE HERE:
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