Boks face Irish onslaught … start as underdogs

The South Africa rugby team starts its Outgoing Tour with a tough match against Ireland in Dublin tonight.

Kick-off is 7.30pm South African time.

The Boks showed some positive signs during the recent Rugby Championship, almost beating Australia home and away (but drawing both) and then very nearly beating New Zealand in Cape Town.

So the team has some confidence.

But Ireland at home is a challenging assignment to say the very least.

Still, if the pack can get it right, and not allow too much ball to the Irish backline, the Boks could triumph, although most pundits are not calling that result.

The referee is Ben O’Keeffe from New Zealand.

SOUTH AFRICA

TEAM:

15 Andries Coetzee

14 Dillyn Leyds

13 Jesse Kriel

12 Damian de Allende

11 Courtnall Skosan

10 Elton Jantjies

9 Ross Cronjé

8 Francois Louw

7 Pieter-Steph du Toit

6 Siya Kolisi

5 Lood de Jager

4 Eben Etzebeth (captain)

3 Coenie Oosthuizen

2 Malcolm Marx

1 Tendai Mtawarira.

BENCH: Bongi Mbonambi, Steven Kitshoff, Wilco Louw, Franco Mostert, Uzair Cassiem, Rudy Paige, Handré Pollard, Francois Venter.

ALSO READ: Rugby for dummies

IRELAND

TEAM:

15 Rob Kearney

14 Andrew Conway

13 Robbie Henshaw

12 Bundee Aki

11 Jacob Stockdale

10 Johnny Sexton

9 Conor Murray

8 CJ Stander

7 Sean O’Brien

6 Peter O’Mahony

5 Devin Toner

4 Iain Henderson

3 Tadhg Furlong

2 Rory Best

1 Cian Healy.

BENCH: Rob Herring, Dave Kilcoyne, John Ryan, James Ryan, Rhys Ruddock, Kieran Marmion, Joey Carbery, Darren Sweetman.

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