Ireland will have stressed the need to tidy things up at the break but were quickly on the backfoot when Bundee Aki was pinged at the breakdown. The Connacht centre admonishing himself after the whistle told its own story.
With half an hour remaining, Rassie Erasmus called upon his famed ‘Bomb Squad’ from the bench, although their first involvement saw Ireland earn a scrum penalty.
Despite the continued narrow nature of their advantage, it was still the Boks applying the vast majority of the pressure with some timely interventions from the likes of Caelan Doris and Josh van der Flier keeping Ireland in touch.
That defensive work felt briefly all the more crucial when, after the ball squirmed from a ruck spoiled by Aki, Lowe fended off Pollard and ran in for a try.
The TMO, however, correctly intervened to chalk off the score after spotting replacement hooker Ronan Kelleher playing the ball from his knees.
Pollard would miss the resulting penalty, his third wayward effort off the tee, to keep the margin at five.
But South Africa still always felt the more likely victors and would secure the game’s key score with a quarter of an hour to go.
Frustratingly from Ireland’s perspective, it came from a Springbok error. After his forwards earned a scrum penalty, Pollard missed touch as Lowe flung the ball back infield.
It would bounce favourably, however, for Cheslin Kolbe who hacked forward before gathering to score the first points of the second half.
With South Africa finishing the game with 14 men as Arendse was sent to the bin, Ireland pulled back within a score with five minutes to go when Conor Murray crossed the whitewash as Farrell’s side attacked off a goal-line drop.
In a frantic finish, South Africa answered back straight away after Lowe made a mistake on the restart and the home pack powered their way to a penalty try from a five-metre scrum.
There was just enough time for the restart when replacement forward Ryan Baird crossed in the corner in the last minute to bring Ireland back within a converted try but they knocked on to end the game when trying to rescue a draw from deep in their own territory.
South Africa: W le Roux; C Kolbe J Kriel, D de Allende KL Arendse; H Pollard, F de Klerk; O Nche, B Mbonambi, F Malherbe; E Etzebeth, F Mostert; S Kolisi (capt), PS du Toit, K Smith.
Replacements: M Marx, G Steenekamp, V Koch, S Moerat, RG Snyman, M van Staden, G Williams, S Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Sin-bin: Arendse, 73
Ireland: J Osborne; C Nash, R Henshaw, B Aki, J Lowe; J Crowley, C Casey; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; T Beirne, J McCarthy; P O’Mahony (capt), J van der Flier, C Doris.
Replacements: R Kelleher, C Healy, F Bealham, J Ryan, R Baird, C Murray, C Frawley, G Ringrose.
Sin-bin: Kelleher, 78
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)