Johnny Sexton says Ireland will use Saturday's loss to South Africa as a "reference point" on their journey to the World Cup in 2027.
Andy Farrell’s side, at times down to 14, 13 and 12 players over the course of what Sexton described as a "crazy match", were outmuscled by a Springboks outfit that looked determined to inflict a statement defeat on their opponents.
Despite slipping down the World Rugby rankings to fourth, and suffering defeats to New Zealand, twice, France and South Africa in the last 12 months, Sexton doesn’t believe that Ireland need to drastically alter their game plan.
Meanwhile, the Springboks appear to have improved dramatically, adding a second consecutive Rugby Championship to their name, which included a record defeat of New Zealand in Wellington.
Off the field they seem to have made use of a frenzied online support system and have used regular media to critisise officials for perceived unfair treatment.
The back-to-back World Cup winners will return to Ireland for the penultimate Nations Championship next year and it's up to Ireland to do something to close what’s becoming a sizable gap.
"Saturday's game in particular will be a massive reference point for us in terms of us playing South Africa this time next year again," said Ireland assistant coach Sexton at the launch of Laya Arena, the new moniker for the RDS, Leinster Rugby's home ground, which will open next summer.
'Two years down the line, we'll give it a crack, I suppose' - Garry Ringrose says Ireland must focus on the here and now #RTESport #RTERugby pic.twitter.com/gAWsbdNsVj
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 25, 2025
"To see the team, how much they can improve and evolve, it'll be great for us to see.
"I'm sure South Africa will come back and it'll be a great match for us to say, 'look how far we've come in these 12 months'."
With Ireland’s pack struggling to live with the powerhouse Springboks, the visitors seemed obsessed with scrummaging to the point of neglecting the scoreboard and, in fact, Ireland 'won’ the second half 6-5.
If a spell of late pressure had yielded an Irish score, they would have been within a try of winning the game.
Sexton was asked if he thought the world champions had set out to humiliate Ireland, who had beaten them in four of their previous five meetings.
"I don't know, you'd have to ask them," he replied of the 24-13 loss that saw James Ryan sent off and four Irish players, including two loosehead props, sin-binned
"The only time they would be humiliated is if you throw in the towel or you pack it in.
"I don't think there was any humiliation in what the lads produced on Saturday for sure because there was no lack of effort.
"There was sometimes a smarts in terms of some of the penalties that we gave away. And some inaccuracies in some parts of our game which we need to get better at.
"But no, I wouldn't see any embarrassment there for sure.
"They made no secret of the fact that they wanted to come here and target this game.
"No [I don’t think there will be scars]. In my eyes it's a one-off.
"That's never happened to our scrum before.
"I know we've got good people involved in that department, and a lot of work is being done there so they'll come up with solutions, they'll come up with fixes.
"There was a couple of brilliant scrums in there that we didn't get rewarded for, in key parts of the game, which was disappointing.
"But sometimes it's very hard to change when the scrum has gone a certain way for an early part of the game. If you fix it for a couple, it's almost unbelievable.
"We don't get the rub of the green. I'm sure the lads will fix it, and it has never happened before. I wouldn't expect it to happen again soon."
Sexton believes there are similarities with where the team was in 2021, when he was still playing, before they 'clicked’ in a behind-closed-doors Six Nations win over England at Aviva Stadium that was the catalyst for two championship titles and a stint at number one in the world.
Referencing his subsequent retirement following the World Cup, along with Keith Earls, and later Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray and Cian Healy, the 40-year-old said: "I honestly believed it at the time we could see it in our performances.
"We were having some amazing phases of play and we just weren't quite finishing them.
"With sport in general, the results dictate the narrative.
"It's very hard to look past results in professional sport, I understand that.
"But at the time, I remember thinking we were on the right track. Andy came in and he didn't rip up Joe [Schmidt’s] philosophy altogether.
"He took lots of the good parts of it but he changed a good few things and some of the bigger picture things was a massive change.
"The big change now is, I suppose, we're trying to develop our game but also we've lost probably 600 caps worth of experience out of the building in the space of 18 months, two years.
"In terms of what's been asked of players, it's different to what it was before because now they have to be the leaders.
"They have to take responsibility for the team, they have to drive the week, they have to do all the things that leaders do.
"That's the big change, and it's something that we're working on massively at the moment.
"With our game, I think bits that went really well against Australia, against Japan at times, we were probably a bit undercooked against New Zealand when you look back.
"Then obviously against South Africa, at times it looked like it was going to go well and just one thing after another in the game that led to a crazy match really."
