Uncharted territory: Springbok Women brace for Ireland test

Ireland is the only top 10-ranked side that none of the current crop of Springbok Women have played against. The only time the two sides have met, was 20 years ago at the 2006 Rugby World Cup, but after a couple of seasons playing her rugby in England, Catha Jacobs has rubbed shoulders with a number of Irish internationals playing in the same league.

"Those players are very skilful and that carried over to their national team as well," reflected Jacobs, who played for Saracens and the Leicester Tigers in recent seasons.

"Ireland have an all-round game, so we will be tested in multiple areas for sure. They have a good set-piece, especially lineouts and their players have a good skill set across the team.

"They also have a very good kicking game and will nou doubt use that to put us under pressure," added the South African utility forward.

Having never played the Irish before is an interesting challenge for the Springbok Women, especially as the visitors are ranked fifth in the world, but Jacobs said that will not deter their ambitions for a win.

"We need to beat them irrespective of what that will do to improve our ranking," she said.

"The rankings are important as we had a target at the start of the season on where we wanted to finish, but that wasn't our only goal.

"We have already beaten the USA and Italy, who had a better ranking than us, and now we have the opportunity to get one over Ireland. To do that successfully we need to win the small battles first on the day and the rest will follow."

Jacobs has 34 Test caps to her name and after playing all over the world during the 2026 season, said she cannot wait to return to Athlone Stadium.

"We love playing at Athlone Stadium and I urge people to come and watch us play," she said. "There is nothing better than playing for your country and to do that in front of an appreciative crowd is even better. We will be ready."

Jacobs also insisted they have put in the hard work for this clash: "A lot of our focus in the last couple of weeks went into our set piece and I think we improved a lot in our combinations too. We understand each other quite well by now and that is reaping rewards. That certainly gives us confidence going into the weekend."