Springboks coach on why they want Ireland game to be hard

South Africa are relishing the prospect of a tough Rugby World Cup battle with Ireland and will go full throttle in Paris, according to assistant coach Mzwandile Stick.

The reigning champions would put themselves on the brink of the quarter-finals with victory over Test rugby’s top-ranked team in Saturday evening’s mouth-watering Pool B clash at Stade de France.

Coach Stick believes the Springboks thrive under pressure and welcomes a stern examination of their credentials to prepare them for potential challenges in the knockout stages.

South Africa lost their opening match of the 2019 World Cup to New Zealand but recovered to lift the Webb Ellis Cup for a third time after defeating England in the final.

“We don’t expect an easy game tomorrow and we actually don’t want it to be easy,” said Stick.

“We want it to be tough just to prepare us in case we go to the play-offs.

“We play our best rugby when we’re under pressure.

“If you remember, going back to 2019, after losing the first game and people kept on saying, ‘you don’t win the World Cup’ and we’ve showed people it is possible.

“We know one thing for sure, when we get to the play-offs, we’ll go hard.

“That doesn’t mean tomorrow we’re going to hold back, we’re not going to hold back. We’ll go hard at them.

“I don’t want to talk too much about Ireland and how they do things, but I’ll tell you one thing – we will be prepared for this game, irrespective of the conditions.”

South Africa have already beaten Scotland and Romania and are marginal favourites for victory against Andy Farrell’s side.

Prop Steven Kitshoff, who will join Ulster after the tournament, expects the team with the greatest desire to emerge victorious.

“It’s going to be a challenging game,” said the 31-year-old loosehead.

“Both sides have a lot to play for and we need to make sure we perform well and keep the momentum we’ve got from the first couple of games going into the World Cup

“But anything can happen on the night. It’s definitely the team that pitches up the most desperate and is willing to work for those extra bits who will come away victorious.

“It’s going to be a close game.”