South Africa vs Ireland: TV details, kick-off time and team news

Who, what, where and when?

Ireland’s summer tour is to South Africa, home of the World Cup champions. The first Test is on Saturday, July 6th with a 4pm kick-off (Irish time).

The game is at altitude at the Loftus Versfeld stadium in Pretoria.

Can I watch?

You can, but not as easily as the Six Nations or November internationals. The summer games are not on free-to-air TV, meaning RTÉ and Virgin are out of action.

Sky Sports are doing the honours this weekend, with their coverage starting at 3.30pm. If you don’t have a Sky subscription, a NowTV pass could sort you out.

The availability of the television coverage aside, The Irish Times will have a live blog which gets under way two hours before kick-off.

What to watch for?

For some bizarre reason, this series has had the sort of trash talk-laden build-up not normally seen in rugby. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing.

There have been jabs from both sides, from both inside and outside camp. Eben Etzebeth, the Springbok lock, accused Ireland of being disrespectful after they beat South Africa in the World Cup, saying “see you in the final” during the full-time handshakes. Etzebeth accused Ireland of being arrogant, ignoring the fact they still had New Zealand to play.

[ View from South Africa: Boks eye bragging rights in opening Test against Ireland ]

Simon Zebo of all people has waded in, saying that South Africa’s coach Rassie Erasmus “hates” Ireland. “Let’s spice it up” was Erasmus’ response when Zebo contacted him to apologise.

Those who watched Chasing the Sun, the documentary which followed South Africa’s most recent World Cup bid, will know that they love going after the old fashioned tactic of pinning up negative media commentary on the dressingroom wall. In the Irish media, they clearly find a lot of material. Which is our fault, I suppose?

Team news

Of the squad that has travelled, Ireland look to be picking from a clean bill of health heading into the first Test. Of course, Jamison Gibson-Park never got on the plane due to picking up an injury playing for Leinster. Garry Ringrose was the main injury concern in recent weeks but he lined out for Leinster in their URC semi-final defeat to the Bulls, a game which also took place in Pretoria.

South Africa have recalled World Cup winners Siya Kolisi, Cheslin Kolbe and Lukhanyo Am after they didn’t feature in their most recent game against Wales last month. Kolisi will once again captain the ‘Boks.

Squads for the first Test will be named later this week.