This is no end-of-season jolly tour, warns focused Matfield

South African veteran Victor Matfield has his World Cup winners’ medal from 2007 but insists winning another next October at Twickenham is still top of his priority list as the Springboks head into their northern hemisphere tour opener against Ireland this Saturday.

The South Africans arrived in Dublin this week as the world number two-ranked team, fresh from inflicting a famous victory over world champions New Zealand at Ellis Park in the final round of the Rugby Championship.

Yet the hard work is far from over, and as far as Heyneke Meyer’s players, led by captain Jean de Villiers, are concerned their four-Test tour against the Irish, English, Italians and Welsh is no end-of-season jolly.