The theme of the week in the Irish camp is that there will be no tapping out.
Ireland don't lose often under Andy Farrell, and when they do, they tend to go down with a fight.
The Ireland head coach wasn’t pleased with his side after last week’s 27-20 defeat to South Africa, and made his feelings clear on Thursday after he named his squad for this afternoon’s second Test.
The one element he did praise his team for, however, is the fact that they never go away.
Looking back over Farrell’s time in charge, it’s hard to pick out even one occasion where they took a hammering on the scoreboard. Even in the defeats when they’ve given the opposition a head start, like France away in 2020 and 2022, England away in 2020, and the World Cup quarter-final against the All Blacks, there’s been an ability to stay in the fight, even if they’re struggling to find their top gear.
Last week’s first Test followed a similar pattern. Ireland never got their noses in front at Loftus Versfeld, and were a clear second best on the day, but there’s been a realisation in both the Irish and South African camps that the scoreboard was closer than it really should have been.
History has also shown that Farrell’s Ireland reacts well to a bloody nose.
Ireland have only lost consecutive games once in Farrell’s tenure, and that was more than three years ago in the opening rounds of the 2021 Six Nations. Since then, there have only been five defeats, and the first four of those have been met with impressive wins straight after.
Some of those recoveries, like down in New Zealand in 2022, or in Marseille to start the Six Nations this year, have been up there with the best we’ve ever seen from Ireland, and given this week’s opposition, location and the injury toll, doing similar in Durban would rank right up there.
"Marseille was pretty good and hopefully this game will be pretty good as well," Farrell said on Thursday, as he looked back on Ireland’s resilient streak.
"Look, to me, we love winning and winning matters. I just want to see a performance that we are proud of at the weekend, more so than last week. I can sit comfortably with that, because of where we’re going as a team, the development.
"But I do think if we get the performance that we’re after, that we’re more than capable of winning."
Already without Jamison Gibson-Park, Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen and Jack Conan coming into the series, Dan Sheehan and Craig Casey joined the list of absentees earlier in the week, while Bundee Aki’s shoulder injury didn’t heal on time.
Aki did take part in Friday’s captain’s run at their Northwood High School base, and while there’s a sense that the Connacht centre could have played if Ireland were in desperate need of numbers, midfield is the position where Farrell has tremendous depth.
Garry Ringrose’s impact on the defensive line in the second half of last week’s Test made him impossible to ignore, while Ulster’s Stuart McCloskey sees has never let Ireland down, and gets a desrved 18th cap off the bench.
As it has been the last two times Ireland and South Africa met, there will be scrutiny on the Irish lineout, which the Springboks have disrupted to great effect.
While the performance of a lineout is down to the unit rather than one player,the world champions disrupted three of Rónan Kelleher’s throws in the second half of last week’s defeat, while it was the Leinster man (below) who started last year’s World Cup meeting when the Boks forced turnovers on each of Ireland’s first four lineouts.
It’s unusual for Farrell to be so critical of his side publicly as he has been this week. The head coach is normally one to highlight the positives after a defeat, and work on the negatives behind closed doors, but he used his opportunity to speak to the media this week as a chance to get the message across to the public.
Even his body language had a bullishness to it, as he leaned over a table of microphones to answer every question, the clicking of a pen in his right hand highlighting the nervous energy of a Test week.
While Thursday was Farrell’s chance to deliver his blunt synopsis of last Saturday to the public, the players were given the message on Wednesday, as revealed by Caelan Doris.
"We had a good meeting on Wednesday in particular where we saw some clips that we felt wasn't us," the Ireland captain said.
"It wasn't what we've shown over the last number of years in terms of some of the smaller things, our work-rate for each other, standing up for each other a little bit, our response to a couple of positives from them and not responding how we would have in the past.
"It's trying to strike that balance between being calm, doing things how we do them, but having a bit of an edge and aggression and edge to us as well."
His use of the words "standing up for each other" rang a bell. On Sunday, it was pointed out by some supporters there had been no real reaction by any player to the late tackle on Craig Casey by RG Snyman that left the scrum-half concussed and out of this week’s game.
And it led to Doris being asked whether some of the Irish players should have "piled in", in support of their injured teammate.
"Not necessarily piling in on top but through how we play the game," Doris clarified
"I think it was a scrum after and they dominated that scrum and it goes from there.
"So it's not necessarily the pushing and shoving, it's more so how we can implement and show a reaction in the actual game."
South Africa’s squad is unchanged for this afternoon’s game, although Rassie Erasmus (above) still believes there’s more to come from his side, particularly in the early days of their new attacking strategy.
At scrum-time they will be hoping to get a greater squeeze on Ireland in the first three-quarters of the game, having only gained superiority at the setpiece in the final 15 minutes.
Ireland’s selection suggests they’ll be confident of matching the Boks at the scrum. While Sheehan is out injured, Kelleher is a powerful scrummaging hooker, while his replacement Rob Herring is also reliable when packing down.
Behind them, Farrell has also put some extra weight into his side, with James Ryan coming into the second row, and Tadhg Beirne now at back row, making Ireland a more powerful starting eight than they were a week ago.
If Ireland do win this evening, there will be a slightly anticlimactic feel to the drawn series, with no deciding Test next week.
But Farrell (above) insists that even though they can’t win the series, it won’t dent their motivation.
"It's our last chance to have a crack at what is the best side in the world at this moment in time and we relish that opportunity.
"Every time you put on a green shirt you always have a chance," he added.
Verdict: Ireland
South Africa: Willie le Roux; Cheslin Kolbe, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Kurt-Lee Arendse; Handre Pollard, Faf de Klerk; Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Frans Malherbe; Eben Etzebeth, Franco Mostert; Siya Kolisi (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Kwagga Smith.
Replacements: Malcolm Marx, Gerhard Steenekamp, Vincent Koch, Salmaan Moerat, RG Snyman, Marco van Staden, Grant Williams, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu
Ireland: Jamie Osborne; Calvin Nash, Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw, James Lowe; Jack Crowley, Conor Murray; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong, Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Rob Herring, Cian Healy, Finlay Bealham, Ryan Baird, Peter O'Mahony, Caolin Blade, Ciarán Frawley, Stuart McCloskey
Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)
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