Damian de Allende: 'The Irish don't strike me as people who are emotional'

Double World Cup winner De Allende referenced where he feels the Springboks may have the advantage.

UP FOR IT: Damian De Allende. Pic: Bryan Keane, Inpho

Springbok centre Damian de Allende has questioned Ireland's "emotional drive" and noted that this summer's test battle between the two giants of rugby will be more like a "war" than a rugby match.

Double World Cup winner De Allende - who had a spell in the red of Munster between 2020 and 2022 - speaking a month out from Ireland's test series visit to South Africa, referenced where he feels the Springboks may have the advantage. 

The 32-year-old feels that Englishman Andy Farrell - highly successful in his role as head coach of Ireland since 2019 - may not know how to make the Irish tick emotionally. 

What he's sure about, however, is his confidence in his coach Rassie Erasmus' ability to hit the right note with him and his fellow Springbok teammates. 

"I think we get the emotional drive," De Allende said in an interview with  RugbyPass.

"It’s hard to say, I think Andy Farrell is English so I don’t know if he knows much about Ireland and the history and what has happened in the past and things like that."

The scenes in which Erasmus and now Leinster coach Jacques Nienaber have stirred their players' emotions on the road to victory at the last two World Cups have been illustrated in the two Chasing The Sun docuseries.

"Because Rassie is South African and he loves South Africa so much, he’s played for the Springboks, and it means so much to him, he knows how to make us tick as South Africans and he knows how to make South Africa tick."

Josh van der Flier of Ireland is tackled by Damian de Allende of South Africa during the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Pic: Brendan Moran, Sportsfile

Ireland have been victorious over the 'Boks in each of their last three meetings, but it is Erasmus' men who have gone on to win big. The most recent example being their World Cup win in 2023, having lost to Ireland in the pool stages.

"I don’t know if (Ireland) have an emotional drive," De Allende said. 

"The Irish don’t strike me as people who are emotional. I think South Africans are very emotional.

"Because a lot of us have tough pasts. I’m not saying the Irish don’t have tough pasts but there’s a lot of us that came up from absolutely nothing and a lot of us appreciate that so much and appreciate what we have now.

"But there’ll always be that emotional drive that pushes us over the line or gets us going just because we always think back to what we didn’t have and what we have now."

Shifting his focus to the two-test series in early July, when Ireland will first travel to Pretoria before a Durban clash, De Allende noted he is immensely looking forward to that first encounter at Loftus Versfeld.

"That first game against Ireland at Loftus, whether I play or not, it is just going to feel almost like a war.

"A lot of people give them credit (as) being number one in the world because they play such good footy but that’s going to be a flippin’ incredible battle."