Springboks reunion ideal litmus test for Andy Farrell’s Ireland two years out from next World Cup

Farrell’s men appear to have been treading water since their famous win in Durban in July 2024 in comparison to Rassie Erasmus’s side.

Ireland's Head coach Andy Farrell arrives for a team run at the Aviva Stadium. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.

Having framed this month’s four Test matches as base station for the 2027 World Cup, Ireland are looking to Saturday evening’s sold-out finale against South Africa as the perfect opportunity to assess how steep of an incline will be needed to scale to get to their desired destination.

November has been a slow burn with an opener in Chicago against New Zealand that failed to spark in terms of a performance from an undercooked Irish team, gathered some momentum after a disjointed opening half to deliver a comeback victory over Japan and then approached something near a top performance to dispatch a weary-looking Australian with a record 46-19 victory over Joe Schmidt’s side seven days ago.

Yet this is the one that matters, a reunion with a Springboks side that has earned the mantle of undisputed best team in the world and as such represents the ideal litmus test for Andy Farrell’s side two years out from the next attempt to reach the highest peak.

Much has been made of Ireland’s good record against the South Africans in recent years with four victories in their last five meetings, including a World Cup pool clash at Stade de France and a drawn series away from home secured with a famous win in Durban in July 2024.

Yet Farrell’s men appear to have been treading water since that King’s Park victory in comparison to Rassie Erasmus’s side, who have extended their knack for peaking at the right time every four years into a more regular habit.

The Springboks retained their Rugby Championship title recently thanks to powerhouse performances when it mattered over the All Blacks in Wellington and Argentina in Durban and have continued to dominate with victories over France and Italy in Paris and Turin after losing key forwards Lood de Jager and then Franco Mostert to first-half red cards.

The aim, naturally enough, is to finish on a high by delivering a first victory for Erasmus in Dublin, ending a losing streak at Aviva Stadium stretching back to before his time at the helm in 2012, and the former Munster director of rugby’s management of his side over the last couple of months appears designed to produce one more peak to round out 2025.

Two weeks on from their 32-17 victory at Stade de France, the big guns are back for this last hurrah and Farrell understands just how razor sharp their focus on this weekend is.

“You’re always going to look at something and go, ‘wow, that’s going to be good.' I've no doubt they've been looking at this,” the Ireland boss said on Thursday, “and I suppose the closer they get to the time the more excited they get about it as they go along.

“I think they’ve dealt very well with being a team that everyone wants to try and prove their point against the best because they want to prove a point for themselves and they’ve managed that superbly well.

“So yeah, they seem to be very comfortable at where they’re sitting at the minute.”

The side Farrell will field will give confidence to Ireland supporters that last Saturday’s result and performance was not a flash in the pan for a team past its peak. It is team designed to match up physically and at the set-piece whilst having the potential for an all-singing, all-dancing attack prompted by in-form half-backs Jamison Gibson-Park and fly-half Sam Prendergast.

The restoration of Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose to the centres brings some defensive stability and offensive edge while the mergence of Mack Hansen as a genuine alternative at full-back to the currently injury Hugo Keenan is a major positive of this November’s efforts.

That latter aspect is what gives Farrell satisfaction. In addition to Hansen, the head coach has seen Tommy O’Brien finally shake of his injury problems to add to Ireland’s attacking firepower from the wing, been rewarded by the introduction of Test newcomer Paddy McCarthy at loosehead prop and successfully ushered the return to fitness of his captain, Caelan Doris while also working through a troublesome lineout at exactly the right time to take on rugby’s best defence in that department. Now comes the final examination.

“I'm finding out about people and seeing where we're at, and I suppose this will give us a lot more idea, wouldn't it, to see where we're at,” Farrell said.

“We've been talking a lot about resilience within our game over the 18 months, and there's been some learnings from that along the way, and that was pretty good last week (against Australia). I suppose that'll get tested to the fore this weekend.

“So, I don't think we're just learning about individuals. We're learning about our game and how we're going to progress with that over the next couple of years.”

A defeat to the back-to-back world champions will not derail that but a continuation of improving form on Saturday evening will represent a very good autumn indeed.

IRELAND: M Hansen (Connacht); T O’Brien (Leinster), G Ringrose (Leinster), B Aki (Connacht), J Lowe (Leinster); S Prendergast (Leinster), J Gibson-Park (Leinster); A Porter (Leinster), D Sheehan (Leinster), T Furlong (Leinster); J Ryan (Leinster), T Beirne (Munster), R Baird (Leinster), J van der Flier (Leinster), C Doris (Leinster) – captain.

Replacements: R Kelleher (Leinster), P McCarthy (Leinster), F Bealham (Connacht), Cian Prendergast (Connacht), Jack Conan (Leinster), C Casey (Munster), J Crowley (Munster), Tom Farrell (Munster).

SOUTH AFRICA: D Willemse (Stormers); C Moodie (Bulls), J Kriel (Canon Eagles), D de Allende (Wild Knights), C Kolbe (Tokyo Sungoliath); S Feinberg-Mngomezulu (Stormers), C Reinach (Stormers); B Venter (Edinburgh), M Marx (Kubota Spears), T du Toit (Bath); E Etzebeth (Sharks), R Nortje (Bulls); S Kolisi (Sharks) – captain, P-S du Toit (Toyota Verblitz), J Wiese (Urayasu D-Rocks).

Replacements: J Grobbelaar (Bulls), G Steenekamp (Bulls), W Louw (Bulls), RG Snyman (Leinster), K Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs), A Esterhuizen (Sharks), G Williams (Sharks), M Libbok (Kintetsu Liners).

Referee: Matthew Carley (England).