South Africa 30 Ireland 17

Ireland’s hopes of making it to the semi-finals of the World Rugby U-20 Championship were dashed in Narbonne when they went down to South Africa.

It’s a second defeat in-a-row for Noel McNamara’s men who will now have to regroup for their final pool game against Georgia next Thursday but they will be playing for a mid-tournament finish from here.

Ireland recovered from a disastrous start to trail by just two points at the interval, with South Africa leading 12-10.

Ireland could hardly have endured a worse start than scrum-half Jonny Stewart having a clearance blocked down by his opposite number Zak Burger to score in less than a minute.

Out-half Damian Willemse added the conversion to give the Baby Boks a perfect start and when they won penalties in the first two scrums it looked ominous for Ireland.

Both sides lost five-metre lineouts after penalties to the corners but South Africa, with their superior scrum telling, increased their lead at the end of the opening quarter when winger Muller de Plessis was put through for a fine score.

Ireland, similar to their poor start against France in midweek, did not panic and Conor Dean settled them with a penalty from 40 metres after 23 minutes.

The Irish set-piece also started making inroads and after a few promising attacks were repelled, they got the breakthrough when captain Caelan Doris peeled away from a scrum to score five minutes from the break.

Ireland's Tom Roche dotting down for Ireland.

Dean landed the difficult conversion to cut the gap to 12-10 and it seemed Ireland had hit the front when right winger Tom Roche scored but the TMO spotted he had dropped the ball in a tackle before ground it.

Ireland had an extra man for the opening ten minutes of the second-half after replacement lock PJ Steenkamp was binned.

Ireland made the extra man count when Doris put Michael Sylvester through five minutes after the restart and the full-back stepped inside neatly to score under the posts, with Dean’s conversion pushing Ireland 17-12 in front.

But South Africa hit back and tied the game when centre Wandisile got in for a try and he repeated the dose towards the end of the third quarter to push South Africa 22-17 in front.

Full-back Gianni Lombard took over the kicking duties when Willemse went off injured and he put them eight points clear eleven minutes from time with a penalty in front of the posts.

Wandisile completed his hat-trick three minutes from time to seal Ireland’s fate.

Scorers for South Africa:

Tries: Simelane (3), Burger, de Plessis

Conversions: Willemse

Penalties: Gianni Lombard

Scorers for Ireland:

Tries: Caelan Doris, Michael Sylvester

Conversions: Conor Dean (2)

Penalties: Dean

South Africa: Gianni Lombard; Tyrone Green, Wandisile Simelane, Lyle Hendricks, Muller du Plessis (Lubabalo Dobela 41); Damian Willemse (Manny Rass 48), Zak Burger; Nathan McBeth (Alulutho Tshakweni 62), Dan Jooste (Schalk Erasmus 26), Asenathi Ntlabakanye (Sazi Sandi 62); Salmaan Moerat, Ruan Nortje (PJ Steenkamp 28-50 blood, Ruan Vermaak 72); Dian Schoonees, Ben-Jason Dixon (Steenkamp 63), Muller Uys.

Ireland: Michael Silvester (Leinster) (James McCarthy (Munster 66); Tom Roche (Leinster), Tommy O’Brien (Leinster), James Hume (Ulster), Sean O’Brien (Leinster); Conor Dean (Leinster) (Harry Byrne (Leinster 69), Jonny Stewart (Ulster) (Hugh O’Sullivan (Leinster 58); Jordan Duggan (Leinster) (Bryan O’Connor (Munster 69), Diarmuid Barron (Munster) (Dan Sheehan (Leinster 64), Jack Aungier (Leinster) (Joe Byrne (Leinster 58),; Cormac Daly (Leinster), Jack Dunne (Leinster); Joe Dunleavy (Ulster) (Aaron Hall (Ulster 54), Matthew Agnew (Ulster), Caelan Doris (Leinster).

Referee: Damon Murphy (Australia).