‘Ireland’s stats up with Boks and NZ’

STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA - OCTOBER 20: Victor Matfield during the South African National rugby team training session at Paul Roos Gymnasium, Markötter Fields on October 20, 2014 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. (Photo by Carl Fourie/Gallo Images)

STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA - OCTOBER 20: Victor Matfield during the South African National rugby team training session at Paul Roos Gymnasium, Markötter Fields on October 20, 2014 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. (Photo by Carl Fourie/Gallo Images)

Published Oct 24, 2014

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Cape Town - While England may be regarded as the toughest Test for the Springboks on their November trip to the UK and Europe, Victor Matfield feels that the tour opener against Ireland will be a “huge game”.

The Irish are the Six Nations champions after beating France 22-20 in Paris.

Schmidt included former South African-based players Richardt Strauss (Cheetahs, hooker) and Robbie Diack (Western Province, No 8) in his squad this week for the November internationals, with veteran Lions star lock Paul O’Connell as the captain.

The Boks leave South Africa next Saturday, flying to Dublin via London to take on the Irish on November 8. “I think Ireland is going to be a huge game. They are the Six Nations champions and they’ve played very well so far this year. If you just look at their (first-phase) stats, they are right up there with New Zealand and South Africa, so it’s going to be a very tough game,” vice-captain Matfield said on the penultimate day of the Bok training camp in Stellenbosch on Thursday.

“And England as well. They did very well against the All Blacks in New Zealand, and there were chances of them winning games over there. So it’s going to be a tough tour, it’s not going to be easy.”

But Ireland’s only loss did come against England, although it was a tight affair (13-10) at Twickenham. Coach Stuart Lancaster has made good progress with a young English team over the last few seasons, and they will be one of the favourites for next year’s Rugby World Cup on home soil.

Heyneke Meyer’s team scraped home by one point at Twickenham in 2012 (16-15), but this time around, the Boks will be in better shape following a two-week break after the Rugby Championship.

“A lot of the Home Unions will think that they are in with a chance of winning the World Cup. But what’s important is that we haven’t lost there over the last two years, and if we can go through this tour without losing, that would give us a lot of confidence going into the World Cup,” said Matfield.

“It’s the first time in my experience that we’ve had two weeks to prepare for the end-of-year tour and will go into the tour fresh, so there are no excuses.”

Cape Times

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