Caelan Doris reckons Ireland's performance against South Africa tomorrow will determine the success or failure of the November window, while injury concerns about Mack Hansen have abated.
Andy Farrell’s side finished the Six Nations in third place, and most of the frontliners were away with the British and Irish Lions over the summer.
Defeat to New Zealand in Chicago at the start of the month was followed by a patchy performance against Japan, which ended in a 41-10 victory.
Ireland were much improved in a 46-19 win over Australia last weekend and a fifth win out of six meetings against the World Cup winners would end the calendar year on a high.
"I think probably the success of this November hinges a little bit on our performance this weekend," said the 27-year-old.
"Momentum has obviously built nicely as the weeks have gone on, but this is the real test.
"There's definitely a lot [of rivalry] there.
"There's a strong understanding of how we both want to play the game.
"We've had some good results. They've beaten us over there as well. Yeah, there's that line tomorrow. That's the feeling."
Meanwhile, the squad, including full-back Hansen sporting a heavily strapped right hand, "trained fully", said an IRFU spokesman.
Hansen was player of the match in the win over the Wallabies, scoring a hat-trick against his native country.
"Everyone is good, yeah," said the captain, who will win his 55th cap.
Doris, who returns to his preferred number 8 role for tomorrow’s game, spoke about the importance of getting the crowd involved but wouldn’t allow passions to dictate their decisions.
He said he understood the difference that taking an early kick at goal, like they did against Japan, and tapping a quick penalty, like against Australia, makes to the supporters.
"I mean you’ve still got to make the sensible decision and play what’s in front of you but being aware that the crowd will get behind us in those bigger decisions, but it’s still got to be the right one," he said.
"It's a privilege to be involved in this game.
"The 8.10 kick-off last week and 5.40 tomorrow are going to be special.
"Looking back to the World Cup in 2023, the atmosphere out there was one of the best I’ve experienced, but the year before here in 2022 was very special as well.
"Yeah, we’re looking forward to hearing the crowd tomorrow and they make a proper difference to us."
Tomorrow’s foul play review officer is Dan Jones from the RFU.
He is the same official that upgraded Tadhg Beirne’s yellow card (above) to a 20-minute red in the loss to the All Blacks.
That decision was subsequently overturned on appeal, as were similar incidents involving South Africa’s Franco Mostert and Japan’s Harry Hockings.
"No, we haven’t discussed it and I mean it’s the coaches who would deal with that sort of stuff," said Doris when asked if he had concerns about relatively inexperienced officials making such big calls.
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