\n<\/p>\n
Ireland centre Robbie Henshaw believes their final autumn nations series fixture against world champions South Africa will be a “proper test” in terms of assessing where the squad is at.<\/b><\/p>\n
Ireland suffered a dispiriting loss to New Zealand before a below-par victory over Japan, but bounced back in ruthless fashion last weekend with a record 46-19 victory over Australia, with Henshaw scoring one of their six tries.<\/p>\n
Having won the Rugby Championship, South Africa are three from three in their November matches in the northern hemisphere.<\/p>\n
The Springboks will look to claim a tour clean sweep in Dublin after victories over Japan at Wembley, France and Italy.<\/p>\n
Ireland famously stunned South Africa in the group stages of the 2023 World Cup, and the sides drew a summer series in 2024.<\/p>\n
And Henshaw hopes the Irish can back up their display against the Wallabies with another big performance at Aviva Stadium on Saturday (17:40 GMT).<\/p>\n
“I think they’re the talk of world rugby at the moment in terms of the strength in depth they have, the individual talent,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They’re grinding out results… teams looks like they have them and then they find a way to get back.<\/p>\n
“It’s a proper test for us to see where we’re at. We have gone toe-to-toe with them, from summer last year it was one win each in that series, so I suppose they’ll be looking at that as well. <\/p>\n
“It’s massively exciting because they’re such a proud nation as well and, you know, when we play against them here in Dublin, it’s always a thriller.”<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old believes there is still more to come from Ireland as they look to end 2025 on a high.<\/p>\n
“I think [against Australia] we conceded quite easily in the first half in that second 20 minutes when they got a roll on,” Henshaw added.<\/p>\n
“So, with what’s coming, it’s more of that up-front physicality and big men running down our channels. <\/p>\n
“I think we just need to meet them on the gainline and front up and that’s a thing we’d have to look at, our physicality in around fringes and stopping the momentum of teams.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Ireland centre Robbie Henshaw believes their final autumn nations series fixture against world champions South Africa will be a “proper test” in terms of assessing where the squad is at. Ireland suffered a dispiriting loss to New Zealand before a below-par victory over Japan, but bounced back in ruthless fashion last weekend with a record<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}