Tour of South Africa: Come into the parlour said the spider to the fly? The backdrop to Ireland's first trek to the southernmost point of Africa in six years seems unnervingly like a trap. Amid much firing and hiring off the pitch, injuries galore and a team that is an utterly unknown quantity on it, the talk is of Ireland being favourites for the forthcoming two-Test series.
Yet, when the tag was presented to Eddie O'Sullivan at his first press conference on his first visit to South Africa, the Irish coach, surprisingly, did not reject such a fanciful notion even though the Springboks haven't lost a home series since the Lions were here in 1997.
"I think we're travelling with a pretty strong squad, which has not been the case for the last two summers," was O'Sullivan's initial response. "We've come off a pretty good season in Ireland and yeah, we feel we're in with a good chance of a Test success in South Africa if we play up to par but it's up to us to achieve that standard we set for ourselves in the Six Nations."
As for emulating the 1997 Lions, O'Sullivan said: "It remains to be seen. We're certainly not here to make up the numbers. We feel that if we do certain things well we can give ourselves an opportunity to do something like that, but it's really down to us to deliver a performance that deserves a Test victory.
"It's like going anywhere as favourites," O'Sullivan continued, "we don't worry about whether we're favourites or underdogs any more, we just go out and play our own game, set our goals and if we achieve them we know we can beat anyone."
That said, Ireland are bracing themselves for a full frontal physical assault from a remodelled, untried, injury troubled but mustard-keen Springboks. One area of renowned Springbok strength - and a likely test of Ireland's physical fortitude, is in midfield, where the Brian O'Driscoll-Gordon D'Arcy partnership is expected to come up against De Wet Barry and Marius Joubert.
O'Driscoll admitted yesterday that far from taking pressure off him, D'Arcy's spectacular emergence this season as a Test centre of some quality, evidenced by a plethora of end-of-season awards, had "given me a kick up the ass more than anything else."
Describing D'Arcy as "a breath of fresh air", O'Driscoll added: "If I'm to look for a couple of the headlines that don't have D'Arcy in them these days, I'm going to have to start playing a bit better."
As for their opposing combination, O'Driscoll described them as a comfortable pairing of big, physical centres who play off each other very well. For all the undoubted success of the new Irish partnership, they possibly haven't had the kind of defensive, physical examination which the Springboks are liable to throw at them. Even in the Twickenham victory, England's attacking threat was largely nullified by them being denied a consistent platform.
When asked if they'd been really tested defensively, O'Driscoll paused at length before admitting: "I guess the conditions weren't ideal for the English to have a proper platform against us because of the greasy ball."
He pointed out that a buoyant Welsh back line were safely held in check but admitted, "I'm sure it's going to be very testing against the Springboks."
O'Driscoll had started running again on Friday after a "freakish" back spasm in Tuesday's warm-up had sidelined him, and he was able to take a full part in yesterday's run-out at the Villager Football Club - a quaint, old-world setting to the backdrop of the cloud-tipped Table Mountain and a red-bricked pavilion with white-gated balconies.
As "a precautionary measure", Malcolm O'Kelly, Paul O'Connell, D'Arcy and Geordan Murphy sat out the session to protect various bumps and knocks.
The 26-man squad and 11-man management team had touched down shortly before 9 a.m. after an 11-hour overnight flight from London and are based in the hotel near Newlands (venue for the second Test) they were in six years ago.
The Ireland team for Saturday's first Test in Bloemfontein will be announced tomorrow, and is liable to be the same as that which started against Scotland last time out, though O'Sullivan may look closely at restoring Alan Quinlan at the expense of David Wallace in reverting to the back row which started the crunch World Cup pool match against Argentina in expectation of similar trench warfare.
The new Springboks coach, Jake White, will unveil his hand today. He has a number of injury concerns, with dynamic back rower Joe van Niekerk, full back Percy Montgomery, winger Ashwin Willemse, tighthead Faan Routenbach and centre Jacques Fouries all expected to be ruled out.
In what is likely to be a massive line-up, there may well be four debutants, left winger Henno Mentz, scrumhalf Fourie Du Preez, number eight Jacques Cronje and tighthead Eddie Andrews. The latter two, along with Joubert and back rower Schalk Burger, were all yellow carded in a nine tries to one, 62-19, win over a composite Central Unions XV on Wednesday, during which referee Jonathon Kaplan had to threaten both sides with red cards.
After two-and-a-half weeks in camp, the Boks returned home for the weekend before resuming their preparations in Bloemfontein today. The heavy toll from their camp is in part due to White's major gripe over fitness levels, but they're clearly going to emerge snorting come Saturday.
