Emerging Ireland recovered from a sloppy and disjointed first 30 minutes to beat the Pumas 36-24 in their opening game in Bloemfontein.
With an average squad age of 22, Ireland showed their inexperience in a sloppy and error-strewn first half and the unforced errors allowed the Pumas to dominate territory.
While head coach Simon Easterby will be frustrated at the first-half mistakes, which gave the South African club side plenty of chances, he will be delighted with the Irish efforts at the breakdown.
On numerous occasions, Ireland secured turnovers in their own 22 as the Pumas came up empty-handed.
Sam Prendergast showed off his kicking prowess with a swerving 70m kick that was knocked on in the 22. From the resulting scrum, Prendergast again went to the boot as his cross-field kick just bounced into touch.
The Pumas were insistent on kicking to the corner and their failure to punish Irish mistakes proved costly as Ireland put the ball through the hands on the 22 metre line, allowing Zac Ward score the game’s first try.
On this occasion, Prendergast missed the resulting conversion from a central position.
More errors followed as Ireland struggled to get their rhythm going in attack and it was off the boot that brought more success for Easterby’s side.
Ben O’Connor’s kick and chase into the 22 resulted in another knock-on from the Pumas and from the resulting scrum, Darragh Murray powered over the line off a Cormac Izuchukwu pass.
Prendergast made no mistake from the tee this time and put Ireland 12-0 up after 26 minutes.
It was a an eventful last ten minutes of the first half as both sides exchanged tries.
Tino Swanepoel proved the biggest threat and the Pumas full-back who capitalised on a missed tackle to race through and find Lundi Msenge out wide, before the winger touched down under the post for the easiest try he will ever score.
It wasn’t long before Ireland restored their two-score advantage on the stroke of half-time. Another Prendergast cross-field kick was knocked on and from the scrum, Ulster’s Izuchukwu went from provider to scorer to power over for his first try in a green jersey.
Prendergast knocked over the conversion as the clock went red and at half-time, Ireland led by 12 points.
Whatever was said at half-time certainly worked as Ireland scored the try of the game at the start of the second half, thanks to Ulster’s Harry Sheridan.
The second row spotted a gap off a ruck and sprinted through it, before popping it off to Matthew Devine, who would send hooker Stephen Smyth over in the corner.
Prendergast again misfired off the tee and was soon replaced by Jack Murphy, son of Ulster head coach Richie.
Alex Usmanov was then introduced in the front and was very impressive in his cameo but it was Swanepoele who struck again.
The full-back raced through a poor Irish defence to score the Pumas’ second converted try of the game to reduce the deficit to ten points. Ireland would again strike back.
A rolling maul off a five metre line-out allowed Leinster’s Gus McCarthy to power over, much to the delight of the Irish forwards.
The Pumas hit back through replacement prop Eduan Swart who crashed over from short distance to make it a ten-point game.
However, they were soon reduced to 14 men as Ireland were awarded a penalty try for a deliberate knock-on by Phiko Sobahle.
The last say of the game came from the Pumas and star man Swanepoele who again showed his pace to score the final try.
A 12-point win in Bloemfontein with standout performances from Ward and O’Connor but a lot to work on for Sunday’s game against the Western Force.
“It was a good game,“ said Irish captain Alex Kendellen after the final whistle.
“We’ve talked about building connections on and off the pitch. We showed glimpses of that today and it’s good to get the win.
“We really enjoyed it. There’s always going to be work-ons. We came together last week and we showed some good things out there. We’ll review it and get back to it next week.
“There is a good group there and we are building nicely.”
Emerging Ireland: (15-9) B O’Connor; R Russell, S O’Brien, H Gavin, Z Ward; S Prendergast, M Devine; (1-8) M Donnelly, S Smyth, J Aungier; H Sheridan, D Murray; C Izuchukwu, A Kendellen (captain), J Culhane.
Replacements: G McCarthy, A Usanov, R Foxe, E O’Connell, S Jansen, E Coughlan, J Murphy, J Postlethwaite.