Tadhg Beirne: South Africa look to bully you, we’re looking forward to challenge

You can probably guess what happened next – the South Africans bounced back to win the title and Ireland missed out on the semi-finals.

Twelve years on, he’s back and now he wants a series win, something no Irish team has managed and something he missed out on with the Lions in 2021.

​One-off wins over South African teams have been a feature of his career, now he wants two in a row.

Ireland's Tadhg Beirne previews South Africa v Ireland

They’ve ticked of loads of firsts in the last few years with the 2022 series win over New Zealand the ultimate, but coming out on top against the double world champions would be a major achievement. “This Irish team has been part of a lot of history over the last few years and we have said that if we can come away from here with two wins we’d have made history by being the first team to come here and win a series,” the Kildare native said.

“So it’s no different to the goal of any other team who have come here trying to win a series. But, it’s definitely motivation for sure. You can’t live in the past, each Test brings its new challenges and you have to learn from the previous Test.

“Whether you’ve won or lost, there’s always something to learn and teams are going to try out different things because of pictures they’ve seen in the previous games. Once that whistle goes, it’s focusing on that one game.

“The Springboks test you in different ways to other international teams.

“The most obvious one is your physicality, they’ve got a really big pack in general,” Beirne explained.

“They do look to somewhat bully you, they go after a lot of rucks whether it’s poaching or trying to bully those rucks to get the ball back or even just make it scrappy.

​“They want to make the game scrappy, get into an arm wrestle. Some teams don’t want that play, they want to just play ball and run it around you.

“South Africa are looking to hit it up, bully us up front and then try to get out wide of us.

“That’s going to be a challenge for us and we’re looking forward to it.”

The Springboks’ mindset is renowned; their ability to win tight games got them through the last World Cup where they edged each of their knockout games by one point.

And, while their mental strength will endure, Ireland are expecting a few tweaks with New Zealander Tony Brown now running the attack.

“They’re very good at knockout rugby and they’ve proven that in the last two World Cups and they’ve proven that by grinding out wins by one score,” Beirne said.

“It’s a credit to them, they stick to their plan really well and they’re a well-drilled team in terms of what they’re trying to get out of the game.

“We can expect something different, of course, they’ve new coaches going in there and even just from the game against Wales you could see they are trying to be a bit more expansive.

“They’re trying to play a bit more than they were a year ago for sure.”

While South Africa are evolving their attacking game, Ireland’s appear satisfied with their plan and are out to deliver it more accurately.

“Like any other week our focus is always on ourselves rather than the other team,” Beirne said.

“We have our way of playing and we do feel that, if everyone from 1-15 is doing their job, we can score against any team in the world. It’ll be no different on Saturday.

“Every time we come into camp it’s an opportunity to represent our country, it’s an opportunity to show everyone what we can do and this one is the same. It means everything to us.

“We’re focused on that physical battle, we’re focused on how we can improve from the Six Nations and hopefully we’ll be able to show that on Saturday,” he concluded.