Conditions may force Boks to revert to type

Temperatures in Johannesburg are expected to reach 26 degrees this week.

Humidity is as high as 83%. Little wonder, then, that the weather was uppermost in the minds of the Springboks as they acclimatised to the wet and cold of Dublin yesterday.

Wind and rain has never had much of an impact on a game-plan predicated on the virtues of grunt and grind, but this isn’t quite the same South Africa that has made the northwards trek time and again in recent years.