Ireland who finished second to England at the 2017 Six Nations, kicks off their Autumn Internationals with a home game against South Africa on the weekend. The Irish will be rolling out a new-look back line including the New Zealand born Bundee Aki who recently qualified to play for the Irish. Jacob Stockdale, after an appearance against the USA in the summer, gets his first taste of home international action as well in the game.
Keith Earls is likely to miss the entire Autum Series in which the Irish go on and face Fiji and then Argentina. Head Coach Joe Schmidt has thrown form players into the mix for the game as the building towards the 2018 Six Nations begins. They are setting their stall out to look at new combinations over the Autumn. This is a good time to experiment.
Ireland went to South Africa for a Tour in the summer of 2016 and came away with a 1-2 series defeat against the Proteas. Each of the victories recorded in that series by both teams were all by exactly a six point margin. There is an Ireland -6 handicap for 10/11 at Paddy Power going into this fixture. The Irish are a short 4/9 odds-on price with the bookmaker to collect the match win.
Overall in the head to head between Ireland and South Africa, South Africa lead 18-6 with the one drawn match. South Africa put up a W2 D2 L2 record in the Rugby Championship this season, beating Argentina twice and remarkably drawing both games against Australia. Both defeats, were as expected against New Zealand. Flying winger Bryan Habana is missing the series to focus on the Sevens and the Springboks are under Allister Coetzee who was installed as head coach back in April.
South Africa in total have played nine matches in the 2017 calendar year and from that, they have posted a W5 D2 L2 record but are without a win in their last four. South Africa are 15/8 at Paddy Power to win the game. The Irish have played eight matches, winning six and losing two of them, their defeats in that sequence coming on the road against Scotland and Wales in the 2017 Six Nations. They are on a four match winning streak, which started with a victory over England and Lansdowne Road back in March.
