Ireland need to build on SA win next year - Frawley

Frawley kicked two late drop-goals to help Ireland to victory

With the very last act of his longest season, Ciaran Frawley kicked Ireland to an unforgettable 25-24 victory over the Springboks - and now the fly-half wants next year to be "even better".

The Leinster player's six points off the bench in Kings Park saw Ireland win for just a second ever time on South African soil and head home with a series draw after last week's reverse in Pretoria.

Having assembled for their World Cup preparations on 18 June 2023, Andy Farrell's players have been on the go for over a year, arguably saving their best result for last.

While they did win the Six Nations, it was a slightly bittersweet success given the lack of a Grand Slam, and another World Cup quarter-final exit and lack of club silverware have given the impression of an uneven season.

"It's been I think 55, 54 weeks on the bounce," Frawley told Sky Sports.

"It's been a long old season.

"We'll dust ourselves off. We've five weeks [off] but we'll look to come back and get even better because at the end of the season with our clubs, we didn't finish off the way we wanted to.

"There's a lot of learnings, from this game, from this whole series, and we'll go again."

Ireland had led 16-6 at half time in Durban but South Africa, who scored all of their points through Handre Pollard penalties, held a 24-19 advantage with just 11 minutes remaining having seized the initiative when Caelan Doris was in the sin-bin.

Frawley felt the impact from his fellow replacements was key in the late turnaround as Ireland worked their way upfield from deep inside their own territory to set up the dramatic finish.

"We speak about it among ourselves when we're on the bench but I think the lads that came on added a real impact," Frawley said.

"There was a real positive vibe among the group when the lads came on which I think we needed.

"The subs were made at the right time and, look, we're delighted with this win.

"The game was going back and forth. They got momentum there probably for most of the second half, we got the yellow card.

"The boys dug in deep. We were in our own half and we managed to get up and get the final points."

'They were dominating us physically'

This was the seventh time in their past eight meetings that a Test between Ireland and South Africa had been decided by a single score. It is clear there is now a real rivalry between the sides ranked one and two in the world.

After the loss, Springboks captain Siya Kolisi was already thinking about when his side will see Ireland again after admitting their opponents had been "dominating physically" in the first half.

"It was tight last week, it was tight this week, and at the World Cup too," Kolisi told Sky Sports.

"Obviously at the moment, they have the upper hand but we'll work hard, learn from this, and I'm sure we'll see them again."

The Racing 92 flanker did not feel his side were as "intense" as they had been in the first Test seven days prior.

"In that first half, the intensity and the physicality, they were in charge of that," Kolisi said. "We were just playing catch-up. We weren't as intense as we were last week.

"They were dominating us physically. That was the big change compared to last week.

"We did well to fight back. I thought the guys that came on, came on and fought and the momentum swung in the second half."