South Africa’s Springboks won’t be caught with their pants down of mistaking Ireland with club side Leinster in tomorrow’s 5pm Test at Loftus Versfeld.
According to Bok flyhalf Handre Pollard, it will be a moerse fout if he and his manskap want to end a three-game losing streak against the Iere.
A lot has been made of captain Peter O’Mahony’s Irish squad and the fact that 18 players of their 35-man touring squad play for Leinster.
This after a full-strength Leinster team recently lost to the Bulls in a United Rugby Champions semifinal at Loftus, with Irish pundit Doncha O’Callaghan calling the loss damaging to Irish hopes of a historic Test series win in South Africa.
Even ex-Springbok lock Victor Matfield chipped in and wysed that the James Ryan-led Leinster’s loss proves that Ireland are not (as many in the northern hemisphere claim) the best side in the world.
Poetry in motion from Handre Pollard and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 🥶 pic.twitter.com/fQBzkavb9D
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 2, 2024
But Pollard and the Boks will not make the mistake by kyking the Iere vlak.
The 30-year-old explains: “Look, Leinster is a great club but Leinster is not Ireland…
“We have got to understand that and when those guys [that play for Leinster] play for their country, they go up another level.
“And then they get the best guys in the country [from other clubs] in to compliment them.
“They’ve got their systems and their structures in place to play the game that they want to play. With the physicality added it probably takes them to another level.
“Same like us, when we put on that [green and gold] jersey it goes to another level.”
Talks of the series being touted as the world champions against an Irish proclaimed “best team in the world” is also not smokkeling with the Boks’ koppe.
Pollard says: “We see it as a Test match, we are a proud nation and we are going to try and defend our home ground.
“Ireland’s a great team and they deserve the respect that they get, it’s up to us now to defend our home turf.”
One or two interesting selections for the Springboks this weekend 👀@BreytonPaulse, @VictorMatfield and Swys de Bruin take a closer look.
— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) July 5, 2024
📺 Watch Final Whistle Presents Side Entry on Catch Up pic.twitter.com/6DrtDpkInB