By Cathal Dervan

Ireland 32
South Africa 15

WHAT a difference a year makes! This time last year Ireland couldn’t kick their way out of the proverbial paper bag in the autumn rugby internationals, but last Saturday at Lansdowne Road they kicked off the 2006 series with an impressive win over South Africa.

The Springboks may have fielded an experimental side for only their third ever defeat at the hands of the Irish, but this was still a victory to gloat about for Irish captain Brian O’Driscoll and his teammates.

The fact that they scored four tries against the Boks, the first Irish side to do so, put the icing on the cake for coach Eddie O’Sullivan less than a year before the World Cup finals kick off in France.

And the confirmation on Monday that Ireland are now up to fifth in the latest world rankings offered another confidence boost ahead of Sunday’s Lansdowne Road test against the Australia in the second of the autumn internationals.

Ireland, playing with the huge wind at their back, were well worth their 22-3 interval lead as the outstanding Ronan O’Gara picked holes in their defense with ease.

Andrew Trimble, David Wallace and Marcus Horan all scored first-half tries with O’Gara adding two conversions and a penalty in that 22 point haul.

The Boks did rally in the third quarter when Ireland conceded tries to Francois Steyn and then Bryan Habana, but Shane Horgan crossed late on to confirm the home side’s supremacy.

Ireland looked unstoppable at times, and skipper Brian O’Driscoll admitted South Africa paid the price for his side’s failure to win a Test on their summer tour to New Zealand and Australia.

It was Ireland’s second consecutive triumph over the Springboks -- they only have three in total -- but O’Driscoll insisted it was important not to get carried away with the performance.

“This was a better display than when we beat South Africa 17-12 here two years ago. We learnt from the summer tour and took our disappointment out on South Africa today,” he said.

“Our performance over the 80 minutes was good. We leaked a couple of tries but I was pleased that we bounced back with Shane’s late try. It was a great effort today but we need to back it up with another one against Australia next weekend. We need to develop a consistency of performance.

“We’ve now set a good standard so let’s build on that because this is a massive year for us. The players looked fit and sharp and hopefully that will stand us in good stead. It’s exciting, but we must keep our feet on the ground.”

O’Sullivan added, “The caliber of the performance over the 80 minutes was very good. We were very controlled in the first half and clinical in our finishing.

“I was worried about the penalty count at halftime because it was high and we talked about not retreating into our shell in the second half. It was important that we didn’t start looking to defend for the second half and I was pleased with the way we took the game to them and kept the ball in hand.

“We had a couple of weeks to prepare for this game and we had a good strategy to play South Africa. They have a very aggressive defense and it’s hard to prepare for it but we still came out with four tries and some excellent execution.

“It’s the first game but everything was right going into it.”

Ireland:

Girvan Dempsey; Shane Horgan, Brian O'Driscoll (capt.), Gordon D'Arcy, Andrew Trimble; Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer; Marcus Horan, Rory Best, John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan, Paul O'Connell, Neil Best, David Wallace, Denis Leamy.

Replacements used: Simon Easterby for N. Best (61 mins.), Geordan Murphy for Trimble, Bryan Young for Horan (both 67), Isaac Boss for Stringer (75), Paddy Wallace for O'Gara, Malcolm O'Kelly for O’Connell, Frankie Sheahan for R. Best (78).