Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town - It was far from the sole reason they lost, but an inexplicably bad day at the lineout office certainly contributed to South Africa’s 15-10 defeat to Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

The disappointing result against the Six Nations champions, who look formidable and well-drilled indeed in their own murky habitat, mercifully closed an end-of-year tour which, overall, stripped more gloss than most of us would have liked from an otherwise excellent year.

Let it be said that, despite all their points coming from penalties off promising Jonathan Sexton’s boot, Ireland were good value for their triumph at Croke Park – no question, I think.

They have some world-class individuals in important positions, and this was confirmed by the likes of Rob Kearney, who was muscular, composed and dangerous at fullback, the customary midfield Midas who is Brian O’Driscoll, influential No 8 Jamie Heaslip and the adhesive firm of Messrs O’Connell and O’Callaghan in the second row.

The Irish, in a nutshell, were more up for it as a unit against brave but weary southern souls, bossing both ball and territory and showing a strong spine for coming back to dominate this one from a 10-3 deficit after some 25 minutes and four points in arrears at the break.

At least the Springboks showed the pride of world champions by very nearly burgling this reasonably engrossing match in a desperate late stand, but justice was pretty well served when the final whistle went.

Some aspects of the Boks’ first-half play were promising, with cool-headedness and sharp organisation a feature, along with a few promising hand-to-hand raids that produced a try for Schalk Burger, perhaps not everyone’s favourite player on the Emerald Isle.

And how about that transformed scrum, then? With BJ Botha very compelling at tighthead and John Smit providing a prop’s ballast back at hooker, there were times when South Africa brazenly trotted the Irish eight backwards.

All that, of course, was minus the services of lock powerhouse Bakkies Botha, who is apparently such an influence in giving the No 3 in front of him some crucial go-forward.

Instead the Boks were getting a fine shunt on with the supposedly incompatible lamp-posts Victor Matfield and Andries Bekker doing the second-row pushing: was it further proof that, sadly, the majority of South African set-piece problems previously lay with Smit’s transition to the “right shoulder” duty?

But if Bok scrummaging issues appear to be evolving slightly for the better, how infuriating and baffling that this was a match marked by the normally imperious lineout slipping into the sewer!

It is not even as though things got better in that department during the second half when Bismarck du Plessis was introduced off the bench and Smit moved back to prop. The former’s throw-in service was as unusually scratchy as Smit’s had been.

Not that all the blame should be lumped on the hookers – Ireland competed keenly and cleverly on the Bok throw and this was also a day when Matfield, so central to South African lineout and kick-off collection strategy, left his A-game behind in the dressing room and it rippled through the ranks.

It was ironic that some had felt, not without reason, the Boks might actually be better, not worse, in the aerial combat for Botha’s absence.

Instead, maybe some of his swift, secure takes at the front -- all the while using his strong thighs and buttocks on the leap to keep his pesky opposite number at bay – were missed more than had been anticipated. 

One or two other normally precise aspects of Springbok play also went rather AWOL in the stubborn fog: Morne Steyn was much more off-key than usual with his place-kicking and also fluffed an early dropped-goal sitter, by his standards.

Backline option-taking got progressively worse after a crisp enough start, and in general terms the exhausted tourists just became more and more predictable, ponderous and sterile until they mustered a semblance of second wind in the last five minutes.

Certainly South African rugby will enter 2010 with one or two alarm bells ringing around the national side, especially in terms of the longer-range sustainability prospects of a few veterans with the 2011 World Cup in mind.

But we must also not fall into the trap of being overly judgmental, after another of these sitting-duck northern ventures at the end of a strenuous season which only served to dim memories of really majestic exploits by the Boks at its mid-year peak.