The final game of a November series will always dictate the Christmas mood, given the two-month layoff until the Six Nations rolls around in February.
This year, it feels even more defining.
Ireland have played ten times this season, and are currently teetering in that middle ground where we're not sure if it was a good year or a bad one.
The Six Nations started off impressively against England and Scotland, but unravelled in the second half at home to a rampant French side.
The summer tour was a valuable and novel experience in Georgia and Portugal, but hard to put much stock into, given it played out in the shadows of an Irish-dominated Lions tour.
The rematch with New Zealand in Chicago was a pig of a game. The All Blacks were bad. Ireland were worse.
Just as it looked like 2025 had turned into a slow-puncture, the 46-19 trouncing of Australia last week put Andy Farrell’s side back on the right road, just in time for their biggest – and final – Test of the year.
As rivalries go in rugby, the modern strife between Ireland and South Africa is up there with any in the world.
It has been aided by familiarity, with former Munster head coach Rassie Erasmus leading the Springboks to two World Cups, aided by former Ireland internationals Jerry Flannery and Felix Jones, as well as his analyst from Killarney, Paddy O’Sullivan.
The United Rugby Championship has pitted the same players together more often at club level. In four years of the URC, six of the 12 semi-finals and finals have been between Irish and South African sides, while the national teams have crossed paths four times in the last three years.
All of those ingredients have been simmering away.
"Rivalries are built around this deep-rooted respect for the level of what the opponent brings," former Springboks captain John Smit told the RTÉ Rugby podcast this week, as he took the pulse of how this Irish team are viewed in South Africa.
"You can always gauge how strong the rivalry is by how much South African fans hate your team.
"It's actually said in an absolutely positive manner, but South African fans are psychotic, which would probably be a diplomatic way of explaining them, and I think you sort of feel this energy when we're playing against Ireland.
"Every single one of the people that are wearing these green and gold jerseys that are watching the team understands that there's a real threat of a team [Ireland] that has been number one numerous times over the last couple of years, has beaten them, and has beaten the All Blacks and has won the Six Nations.
"So all of that leads into the fact that this has always been a big test for the last couple of years."
"You can always gauge how strong the rivalry is by how much South African fans hate your team..." @JohnSmit123 gave a brutally honest take on how Ireland are viewed in South Africa! ☘️🇿🇦https://t.co/Tm3u2ZPwdq pic.twitter.com/AQD7mNwine
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 18, 2025
So much of this rivalry goes back to a sliding doors game of rugby in 2017, when Ireland demolished the Boks 38-3, shortly before Rassie Erasmus was due to return as South Africa’s director of rugby, and he would soon change that role to head coach after the sacking of Allister Coetzee.
Two World Cups later, everything has worked out just fine for South African rugby.
While Erasmus wouldn’t trade one, never mind both of the World Cup titles for a win in Dublin, beating Ireland at the Aviva is the one thing he has left to tick off his bucket list in his eight years with the Springboks.
Ireland have won three of the four meetings between the sides in the Andy Farrell and Rassie Erasmus era, with the only South African victory coming in the first Test of their 2024 summer series, which Ireland would go on to level with a dramatic comeback in Durban a week later, thanks to two late Ciarán Frawley drop-goals.
Erasmus was honest in admitting that his poor record in this fixture has been a sore point, both for him and his players, but they arrive in Dublin this weekend looking sharper than ever.
This will be the 14th of a hectic 15-game international season for the Boks, who retained their Rugby Championship title in October and have since added wins against Japan, France and Italy, the most recent two of which they played for more than half the match with 14 players, following red cards.
The fundamentals of their game remain the same; a ferocious pack that want to scrum and maul their opposition off the pitch, but that is now layered with the freedom they are being given in attack under assistant coach Tony Browne, who has paired with 23-year-old Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu like a hand and a glove.
Erasmus has admitted that this game will likely define how he looks back on 2025, and the same can be said for Ireland, who will hope they have turned a corner in their hammering of Australia a week ago.
The lineout issues which have nagged away at their game all year were absent last week, although we will hold judgement on that setpiece until we see how it fares against a far better Springboks pack.
Ireland dominated with their kicking game, Jamison Gibson-Park and Sam Prendergast both giving their chasers consistent opportunities to win back possession, and when they did, the attack looked sharp.
Farrell has made four changes to his team for this weekend’s game. Andrew Porter, Josh van der Flier, Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose all return to the starting team, while Tom Farrell earns a second cap off the bench.
The most talked-about selection sees Prendergast (above) retain his spot at out-half, with Jack Crowley among the replacements.
The Leinster 10 produced his best performance of the season against the Wallabies, but question marks remain around his defence.
Andy Farrell gave a staunch defence of his player yesterday, and looked frustrated at being asked questions about the out-half's tackling. No team will put those questions to the test quite like South Africa.
While it has been a long season for the Springboks, Erasmus has been able to rotate his personnel in recent weeks, spreading minutes to get his side through this arduous five-game block.
He has made 11 changes from the side that battled past Italy in Turin, with second row Ruan Nortje and wing Canan Moodie the only changes from the XV that began their impressive win against France in Paris, as Lood de Jager misses out due to suspension and Kurt-Lee Arendse is ruled out with injury.
They are missing world player of the year nominee Ox Nche, Edinburgh’s Boan Venter continuing in his absence at loosehead alongside the experienced Malcolm Marx and Thomas du Toit in the front row. With an all-Bulls front row of Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp and Wilco Louw on the bench, the power of their scrum is a given.
There's no obvious weakness in their game to exploit, and so only Ireland’s best performance of the year can be enough to cap the season off on a high.
However, it’s also entirely possible that Ireland play their best rugby of the season and still come out second best.
This time, it feels like Rassie and the Boks are due a big game in Dublin.
Verdict: South Africa
Ireland: Mack Hansen; Tommy O'Brien, Garry Ringrose, Bundee Aki, James Lowe; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne; Ryan Baird, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Rónan Kelleher, Paddy McCarthy, Finlay Bealham, Cian Prendergast, Jack Conan, Craig Casey, Jack Crowley, Tom Farrell.
South Africa: Damian Willemse; Canan Moodie, Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende, Cheslin Kolbe; Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Cobus Reinach; Boan Venter, Malcolm Marx, Thomas du Toit; Eben Etzebeth, Ruan Nortje; Siya Kolisi (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit, Jasper Wiese.
Replacements: Johan Grobbelaar, Gerhard Steenekamp, Wilco Louw, RG Snyman, Kwagga Smith, Andre Esterhuizen, Grant Williams, Manie Libbok.
Referee: Matthew Carley
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Watch Ireland v South Africa in the Quilter Nations Series on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport. Listen to live commentary on RTÉ Radio 1
