'Never seen a game like it' - Farrell on SA loss

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said he was "unbelievably proud" of the fight his players showed after receiving a flurry of cards in a hectic defeat by South Africa in Dublin.

After James Ryan's yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red, Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were all sin-binned as Ireland fell to 24-13 loss to the world champions.

Farrell was upbeat about his side's response to a chaotic first half which Ireland ended with 12 players and trailing 19-7 as he took issue with a reporter saying the opening 40 minutes had been "borderline shambolic".

"I said chaotic. Yeah, I won't repeat your word because I think you're wrong," said Farrell.

"I haven't seen a game like that ever, and you think you've seen it all, and I haven't seen a game like that ever.

"I suppose, first and foremost, you look at yourself and why things have happened. So, we'll do that, and make sure that we learn the lessons from that.

"But my overriding thought of the game is that I'm unbelievably proud, so for you to start a conversation off like that doesn't sit well."

He added: "For all sorts of reasons, I thought going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for the country, certainly in that first 10 minutes of that second half, it was absolutely amazing."

While Farrell was buoyed by his team's second-half efforts, he bemoaned "stupid errors" and admitted Ireland lost their composure in the face of a dominant South African scrum.

"You can look at all sorts of different situations as well within the game and you can say that that was the turning point," he added.

"The yellow card that went to red was a try that we'd scored and obviously pulled back.

"Then a few stupid errors from ourselves playing the ball through the ruck and I think with three offside penalties. They're the manageable ones that you don't give a team like that access, but we did."

He added: "They try and cause a bit of chaos within the game, certainly at scrum time, but in general as well I thought we just lost our composure a little bit as far as that's concerned."

Ireland dominated Australia in the air last week during a 46-19 win, but Farrell was disappointed with his side's kicking game against the Springboks.

"Some of the stuff that we did really well last week didn't really transfer this week. Our kicking game was a bit long and a bit off at times.

"Our high-ball stuff was way better last week and our conversion in the 22 was way better obviously last week."

At the start of the week, South Africa assistant coach Mzwandile Stick claimed the Springboks had been treated unfairly after red cards for Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert in their wins over France and Italy.

When asked if he thought Stick's comments had influenced the officiating, Farrell said: "Well, we brought it up with the referees before the game and they said that would never be a factor, obviously, because this is a separate game and I'll let you be the judge of that."

Having won for the first time in Dublin as South Africa head coach, Rassie Erasmus said: "The game was very physical and there was a 20-minute red card given, which I thought was the right call.

"We were dominant for most parts of the game but just couldn't quite kill it.

"It was hectic and it was difficult to manage. It was difficult to understand sometimes who's on and who's off and who comes back and who's got an HIA (head injury assessment) and who's injured.

"That's Test-match rugby at the highest level and you have to manage those kind of things."