“It’s still an international game. Every single player in world rugby who gets the opportunity to play for his country lifts his game," he told a news conference.
"They are a very proud nation as well and we know that the guys who will come in will make that step up. Every player who plays for his country plays with pride, especially the Irish. It is still going to be a massive test for us.”
Ireland, who touched down in Cape Town on Monday, will take to the field for Saturday’s first test in Cape Town with a much-changed team.
Injuries ruled out key players like Tommy Bowe, Peter O’Mahony and Simon Zebo and in the last week Johnny Sexton, Luke Fitzgerald and the Kearney brothers, Rob and Dave, joined the list of absentees.
South Africa, in contrast, were reinforced over the weekend by the arrival of European-based players Francois Louw, Duane Vermeulen and the uncapped Steven Kitshoff.
“It’s good to have that extra leadership element around and they have already started contributing,” Strauss said of experienced loose forwards Louw and Vermeulen.
“We had good training sessions last week but we are tightening the screws this week. There are details we still need to sort out, like running again through our attacking and defensive plans,” the hooker added.
Ireland, who have never won in South Africa, stunned the Boks two years ago with a 15-10 victory in Dublin using a strong kicking game to great effect.
“They used broken play kicking well and had also done their home work from set-pieces," Strauss said.
"We’ve been working hard at countering a repeat, we’ve had a couple of good defensive and kicking sessions already. It always a challenge against them, they do their homework quite well but we have been preparing for that.”
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
Share
