As Ireland's players enjoy the last couple of days of their down-week before returning to World Cup training camp on Sunday night, their tournament rivals are getting down to business.
Garry Ringrose and Hugo Keenan spoke to the media this week outlining the work being done by the 42-man Ireland squad at the HPC in Dublin; A lot of strength and conditioning, some unit work and gameplay. In terms of opposition analysis, that’s for later in the summer.
They may not have been scrutinising their Pool B opponents South Africa, or a potential quarter-final opponent New Zealand, but temptation might now get the better of them, as the Rugby Championship gets underway this weekend.
The truncated Rugby Championship opens on Saturday afternoon with South Africa hosting Australia in Pretoria (4.05pm Irish time), before Argentina host defending champions New Zealand in Mendoza (8.10pm).
As is now normal in a World Cup year, the Rugby Championship will be more sprint than marathon, with just three rounds of games as opposed to the usual six, and the deck stacked against the All Blacks and Argentina who will both be away from home twice.
If Ireland have designs on getting to a World Cup final, all four teams are relevant from their perspective, but the immediate focus will be on South Africa, and what Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber have planned ahead of their Pool B meeting in October.
Four years ago, a developing Springboks used this championship as the foundation on which to build their World Cup title, but with more expectation and pressure on South Africa to perform this time round, their results this month will long be forgotten if they were to retain the Webb Ellis Cup later this year.
As such, Nienaber’s team selection for today’s game at Loftus Versfeld looks like one which has half an eye on the World Cup.
While there’s a core of experience and first-choice stars like Lukhanyo Am, Steven Kitshoff, Bongi Mbonambi, Frans Malherbe and Pieter-Steph du Toit, management have sent a large group of frontline players to New Zealand early ahead of next week’s meeting with the All Blacks in Auckland, including Malcolm Marx, Eben Etzebeth, Faf de Klerk, Cheslin Kolbe, Makazole Mapimpi and Damian de Allende.
The big story from the South Africa camp is the inclusion of Munster’s Jean Kleyn in the starting line-up, with the 29-year-old lock set to make his debut after being cleared to line out for the Boks last month.
Having won the last of his five Ireland caps at the World Cup in 2019, Kleyn had been tipped for a recall to the Irish training squad this summer following a consistently excellent season with Munster. That call from Andy Farrell never came, but the call from Rassie Erasmus did.
The second row has work to do to make the final 33-man squad for the World Cup, but if he does he could even feature against Farrell’s side in Pool B. Having been picked for his debut this week, he rubbed up some rugby fans in Ireland the wrong way.
"It will always be different, it is your home country," he said.
"Obviously it was a great honour to play for Ireland as well, but I didn’t grow up as a young boy watching Paul O’Connell play and say, 'Jeez, I wanted to play in his jersey'.
"I was watching Bakkies Botha run around, smashing guys and thinking, 'one day, one day'. You talk about childhood dreams coming through and that stuff."
The outrage is obviously selective, and anybody who thinks a second row of his age would grow up in Johannesburg not wanting to be the next Bakkies Botha is quite naïve. Still, it’s another nice ingredient to throw into the stew that will slow-cook until the sides meet on 23 September in Paris.
Much like Ireland, South Africa’s out-half situation is a point of focus as they build towards the World Cup.
Handre Pollard looks set to be the first-choice option for the World Cup, but with the Leicester Tigers man ruled out of the Rugby Championship due to injury, it leaves Manie Libbok and Damian Willemse covering 10 for the next three games at least.
Willemse started all four of their games in the Autumn Nations Series last year in the out-half shirt, but Pollard’s absence was particularly felt when the Springboks were beaten by Ireland at the Aviva Stadium last November, both in general play and off the tee, where South Africa were wasteful.
Libbok gets his chance in the starting team this week, and while Irish fans will have seen plenty of the Stormers man across the last two seasons of the BKT United Rugby Championship, his ability to run a more restrained gameplan with the Springboks will be fascinating to see.
Equally fascinating will be how Australia look under Eddie Jones. As first games go, it doesn’t get much tougher that taking on the Springboks in Pretoria, with Australia losing all seven of their previous meetings with the Boks at Loftus Versfeld.
Jones’ time as England head coach ended on a sour note with his sacking in late 2022, but he’s made a habit bringing teams on World Cup runs, reaching the final with Australia in his first spell in charge in 2003, helping South Africa win the tournament in 2007, sparking Japan’s upset of the Boks in 2015, before guiding England to the final four years ago.
Given the lopsided nature of the World Cup pool draw, the Wallabies look a good bet to make a run to a semi-final in France later this year. And if they start their season with an overdue win in Pretoria, it could get the ball rolling on a big year.
