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2022 Autumn internationals
Ireland v South Africa
Aviva Stadium
Dublin, Ireland
Saturday, 5 November 2022
Kick-off is at 19h30
South Africa will be keen to avoid another upset at the hands of Ireland when they square off at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday, November 5.
The Springboks suffered a massive 38–3 defeat to the Irish at the same venue when they last met during the end-of-year tests in 2017.
SA have a good overall record against the current No.1 ranked team in the world, although they lead 7-6 in head-to-head encounters since the turn of the millennium.
Jacques Nienaber's side have won six of their nine tests in 2022 and made a strong showing in the recent
Rugby Championship as they finished just a point behind winners New Zealand.
The Boks come into this weekend's contest on the back of three successive victories against Australia (one) and Argentina (two).
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Nienaber will use the clash to gauge the strength of Ireland ahead of the 2023 World Cup in France, with the two teams having been drawn in the same pool.
"We selected a team we believe contains the best combinations to counter the threats posed by Ireland," he said.
"Ireland are the top-ranked team in the world currently and they've shown in the past that they can be a force to reckoned with in Dublin.
"We last faced them on their home patch in 2017 and they beat us 38-3 in that match, and they also beat us here 29-15 in 2014. They will draw confidence from that.
"Similarly to us, they will also view this as a vital clash with an eye on next year's Rugby World Cup in France.
"This match is important for us for many reasons, one of which is to test our player combinations with the World Cup less than a year away."
Ireland rose to the top of the World Rugby Rankings following a historic 2-1 series win in New Zealand four months ago.
Andy Farrell's men have recorded six wins in eight matches this year, with Wales and England amongst the scalps they claimed.
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Captain Johnny Sexton admits they have a target on their back now and says it's important to evolve to keep the opposition guessing, while he welcomed the challenge that South Africa will provide.
"When you have a couple of results as we did in mid-year, teams start to properly look at you and they go, 'how are we going to mess up this Ireland team? How are we combat this?'," Sexton said.
"We've got to do it better and we've got to evolve a little bit and make sure we bring something new to the table.
"If we got a win on Saturday it would be great, if we don't then we learn from it. We're going to learn both ways.
"We're going to learn about South Africa, we're going to see what it's like to play against this type of team, we haven't played against them in a few years and I think it's what we need."
Head-to-Head:
Matches - 26
Ireland - 7
South Africa - 18
Draws - 1
South Africa starting XV: Kolbe, Arendse, Kriel, De Allende, Mapimpi, Willemse, Hendrikse, Kitshoff, Marx, Malherbe, Etzebeth, De Jager, Kolisi, Du Toit, Wiese.
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