All has changed for new-look Ireland

“They got picked on merit. I’d just like them to do what they do week in, week out. I know how much it means to them. I see that from the way they’ve been training. We have to pull them off the pitch. Otherwise, they’d still be training now. That’s always a good sign but it doesn’t mean anything unless you front up on Saturday. But it’s certainly been infectious.”

Picked on merit

As for Strauss, Kidney reckoned his hooker’s Afrikaans would only ensure a few bogus calls from Saturday’s opponents, and praised him for “picking up sticks and leaving home to throw himself fully into Leinster. Nobody would have made it easy for him to come through but he’s fought through everything and fought his way here. He’s picked on merit, and we’re very lucky to have him”.

Strauss himself recalled the road travelled when first arriving in Dublin three years ago. “I was only 23 years old, very young and inexperienced. I think the toughest thing was to know you’re saying goodbye to your family.”

Three years at Leinster have also sharpened his game considerably. “I’m a completely different player, just with the amount of coaching and technical support you get here is something I never got in South Africa. I think my ball skills, my throwing and scrummaging have improved, and then my decision around the tackle, when to go into the breakdown and when to stay out, all these things that you can’t really coach specifically, you know we got through a lot of tape and look over stuff and that’s the way you learn.”

Asked if he would it be especially emotional to hear both anthems, including Nkosi Sikelel’i Afrika, he simply answered “no”. His parents are flying over for the game and he has come up against his cousin Adriaan, his direct counterpart on Saturday, before, at provincial level in South Africa. “We tried to leave the family bonds off the pitch and then go at one another. Afterwards, have a beer or something.” It will be the same again this week.

Ireland XV v South Africa

15 Simon Zebo (Munster)

14 Tommy Bowe (Ulster)

13 Keith Earls (Munster)

12 Gordon D’Arcy (Leinster)

11 Andrew Trimble (Ulster)

10 Jonathan Sexton (Leinster)

9 Conor Murray (Munster)

1 Cian Healy (Leinster)

2 Richardt Strauss (Leinster)

3 Mike Ross (Leinster)

4 Mike McCarthy (Connacht)

5 Donnacha Ryan (Munster)

6 Peter O’Mahony (Munster)

7 Chris Henry (Ulster)

8 Jamie Heaslip (capt)

Replacements:S Cronin (Leinster), D Kilcoyne (Munster), M Bent (Leinster), D O’Callaghan (Munster), I Henderson (Ulster), E Reddan (Leinster), R O’Gara (Munster), F McFadden (Leinster).