If you're in any way a follower of rugby on social media, you've seen the jokes by now.
Perhaps it's the Dutch surname, or perhaps it's partly down to the way rugby's residency rules have been manipulated over the years, but Josh van der Flier is not, in fact, South African.
The jokes about Wicklow's Van der Flier being a project player have been around for years, but every time they resurface, people take the bait.
In times like these, when Ireland are facing South Africa, it takes the edge off the tension of a Test week.
"One of the hotel staff started speaking Afrikaans to me. It takes a while to explain I'm actually Irish," the 31-year-old laughs.
"They're seeing the meme of it and thinking 'he must be South African'. I put something on Twitter there a couple of weeks ago and all the comments were like 'you're coming home!'"
Van der Flier isn't heading home, but he is heading back to familiar territory this afternoon in Pretoria.
Three weeks ago, the flanker's club season came to an end at Loftus Versfeld when Leinster fell to a disappointing 25-20 defeat to the Bulls in the semi-final of the BKT United Rugby Championship.
"It is strange, yeah. It's nice to be back. It's a great stadium to play in, I really enjoyed playing in it, obviously the result wasn't great, but normally you'd have to wait a year at least to get to play there again.
"It's exciting now, a different environment and a chance to learn a few things with a new group in a cool stadium," he adds.
That defeat to the Bulls capped off a third year in a row where Leinster have failed to lift a trophy, having won five titles in the four previous campaigns.
The Irish players and coaches have insisted that the disappointing end to the campaign for all four provinces hasn't clouded preparations for this series, and Van der Flier (above) explains his own process for dealing with a third Champions Cup final defeat in a row.
"It can take its toll on you.
"One thing that I try and do individually is to try to put it in such a way, like 'did I do everything that I could to prepare for it? Did I try as hard as I could? Leading into the game was I as ready as I could be?' Yeah, I was.
"'Did I try as hard as I could? Yeah, I might have made a load of mistakes but I can be happy with that and try and move on.'
"That is how I would go about it. It is tough. You put the Leinster season behind you and it is nice to be in a new environment and everyone’s in good form and looking ahead to Saturday; it’s exciting."
The former World Player of the Year didn't feature when Ireland thumped the Boks 38-3 back in 2017, but was a key player in the two recent wins in 2022 - where he scored a try - and at last year's World Cup.
While South Africa are back-to-back world champions, their three consecutive defeats to Ireland have created a narrative of 'Unfinished Business', as declared by the Springboks' official X account during the week.
And Van der Flier, who will earn his 63rd cap this afternoon in Pretoria, says Leinster senior coach Jacques Nienaber - formerly head coach of the Boks - has been able to give them an insight into the unique challenge posed by the world champions.
"One thing I've kind of noticed from talking to South African players, and even Jacques, it's definitely very personal. They try and make it personal in terms of confrontation and make it a personal thing.
"It's a way of motivating, that's the way they like to do it, and they're very passionate about playing for their country.
"I think a lot of it is what you see. It's very much a physical test, who is man enough to take you on one-on-one? There's definitely a lot of that in their psyche.
"It makes for a big physical challenge. It's the same for any team in rugby, physicality plays a huge part of it, winning collisions, and it's certainly something they pride themselves on."
Also fuelling the hype around this game is how vocal the South African players have been in the media. Eben Etzebeth, Damian de Allende and Cheslin Kolbe all made headlines in recent months, while their head coach Rassie Erasmus has been his usual mischievous self, both in press conferences and on social media.
"I find those things entertaining," he laughs.
"Even in football like [Jose] Mourinho, the mind games they play, whether it's mind games or talking themselves up, I don't know, it’s entertaining."
When it comes to game day, however, Van der Flier says the Boks are all business.
"I haven't experienced a huge amount [of chat on the pitch]. Definitely if you chat to them, or if there is anything...like say when someone feels it is a slightly late challenge or shot, they grab you and have a few words. There’s definitely that bit of edge. It comes from both sides potentially.
"The physical and confrontational nature of it, it can often be highly strung, particularly when South Africa are playing different teams, you see a few more of the push-and-shove moments. I have never experienced anything too negative anyway."
Ireland coach Andy Farrell described the edge between the sides as a 'healthy respect', which is reflected by each of their last two games being decided by less than a try.
And Van der Flier was quick to single out Springbok number 8 Kwagga Smith (above) for particular praise.
"A brilliant player, I rate him very highly.
"I remember seeing him play for the Barbarians, and it was one of the best performances I have seen from a backrow, it was brilliant. It was a few years ago.
"He has got everything, he is good over the ball, a really good ball carrier, good skills, he is always very confrontational as well. I can see why they have picked him, and he is a good player."
The Ireland international they will have to stay on top of Smith around the breakdown if they're to take a 1-0 series lead to Durban next week.
"They are like any team of their quality, if they win the first collision when they are carrying, if we don’t get a good tackle, you are already retreating and trying to compete at a breakdown where they are moving forward and hitting you back.
"It’s momentum thing. The way South Africa play is that they’ll receive a kick, someone will carry the ball, and if they make a few yards, you have big, heavy bodies running onto the ball. That’s how they play, they get on top of you and it’s hard to get momentum back. It can feel like they are really on top of you then.
"The key to it is to win the first collision, or win a collision, you’re back in, you have time to get off the line and put pressure on them again. It’s not letting them get into that position."
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Listen to live commentary of South Africa v Ireland (4pm) on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1, and follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app.
