Jack Conan: 'South Africa are kind of reinventing the game, it's great to see'

The onus on Ireland will be to play with a discipline that was lacking too many times against the Aussies, and to bring the same sort of legal aggression and force of will that delivered that famous win against the Boks in the epic World Cup pool game at the Stade de France two years ago.

REINVENTING: As South Africa are reinventing the game its is up to Ireland to find a way to overcome them next weekend. Picture: ©INPHO/Nick Elliott

Watching Ireland click in to some sort of gear against Australia on Saturday, seven days out from the arrival on these shores of the Springboks’ in-form world champions, was the rugby equivalent of running to make your flight in the nick of time. Far too close for comfort, the sense of relief was palpable.

“You want to be feeling good about yourself,” said Jack Conan. “You want to be coming in next week, a bit of pep in your step, bouncing in and looking forward to reviewing the things that we did well and taking on the chin the things that we could do better, and bringing it all forward into next week again, which is going to be a huge test against South Africa here.” But he made an astute point amid all this.