Paris and Turin adversity prepared Boks for Irish onslaught

If the past two Saturdays has done anything for the Springboks, it has prepared them for the onslaught they are about to face at AVIVA Stadium on Saturday night when Ireland take the field.

The Boks have won back to back games against France and Italy with 14 men on the field, and have had to dig deep to do so.

But that experience, the soaking up of pressure and turning it into points is exactly what they will need when they face the Irish this weekend.

It isn’t a surprise that there have been countless reminders that the Irish have won four out of the last five clashes between the two sides, and they have been incredibly close.

In the United Rugby Championship the rivalry between Irish and South African sides is incredibly close, with it virtually being neck and neck since South Africa entered European competition.

Most South African sides know a few things about the Irish. One, they are incredibly adept at keeping possession and two, they can strike ruthlessly and quickly and take a game away from you.

New Zealand beat Ireland a few weeks ago in Chicago on the back of soaking up a ton of pressure in the first half, then turning it on in the second half to power to the win. Ireland will have gotten significantly better since then and will be a tougher prospect at home this weekend.

But the Boks have done exactly that in the past two weeks - the red cards they received for Lood de Jager and Franco Mostert placed them under immense pressure, which they soaked up with relative ease.

The amount of extra work that the Boks put in is exactly the sort of attitude that will be needed to beat Ireland.

As anyone watching Leinster - where the bulk of Irish players come from - knows, the key to beating them is to not let them get away to a big lead, which Leinster often do, and to suffocate them.

The Boks have the ingredients to do this - a strong scrum, a workhorse pack and a bomb squad that can inject life into their game. All this was good enough to come close, but not good enough to beat Ireland four out of the past five times.

The difference now is that the Boks have a more potent attack, have more x-factor players and are keen to finally give coach Rassie Erasmus his first win over the Irish. To say there will be more than enough motivation for this clash will be an understatement and the Boks x-factor may well be the key.

The Irish thrive when their pack gets on top, and with Jamieson Gibson-Park pulling the levers behind the scrum they have a lot of players who can front up physically, can hurt opposition and make metres.

The Boks will know this more than most and while their win over France was seen as the big game of the tour, this will be the one they want to win the most.

The loss to Ireland in the World Cup still hurts, and the Boks, while achieving some magnificent things, have not gotten the upper hand on Ireland as they have on other opposition. This year alone there have been record wins against Argentina, New Zealand and France.

Ireland may not be a record win, but a win is what counts at AVIVA Stadium this weekend.

And it will be one that counts more than a number of others for this Bok team.