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Ireland set to take on South Africa as tour fixtures announced
By PA
Ireland will play two Tests against the world champion Springboks in South Africa next summer.
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Andy Farrell’s squad face South Africa in Pretoria on July 6 and then in Durban a week later, the South African Rugby Union has announced.
It will be Ireland’s first trip to South Africa since 2016, when they lost a three-Test series 2-1 after winning the opening encounter in Cape Town.
Since that series, Ireland have beaten the Springboks on three-successive occasions – twice in Dublin and then during the recent Rugby World Cup pool stage in Paris.
South Africa, meanwhile, will tackle Portugal for the first time on July 20 next year.
Portugal were one of the World Cup’s success stories in France, drawing with Georgia, giving Wales a stern test and ending their campaign by recording a famous 24-23 victory over Fiji.
Will The Waterboy’s cheating tactics work twice in row for 2 tours ?
Let’s see if we can do what the All Blacks could not! Very exciting! It’ll be a tough battle, but we had their number the last two games, just the shoddy kicking cost us big time.
SA v Portugal will be a close game (assuming WR appoints neutral officials). Ireland sans key forwards (Furlong, Porter and Beirne and others) should easily come away with a clean sweep. My money is on WR again ensuring SA appear competitive irrespective of the game. Very sad state of affairs and certainly no way to try and grow the game as an attractive alternative to Rugby League.
The end of Irish rugby rising is in sight
Pity it won’t be a three test series.
This will be intense.