Heaslip: Boks a scary challenge
However, veteran Irish loose forward Jamie Heaslip said the Boks are still "pretty intimidating" and a "scary challenge".
The 32-year-old, with 65 Irish caps and another five for the B&I Lions, was addressing the media ahead of the second Test against South Africa at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Ireland created history by beating the Boks for the first time on South African soil, with their 26-20 victory at Newlands last week.
However, despite all the pessimism surrounding the Boks, Heaslip feels they are not the pushovers people believe them to be.
"If you look back in history you will find how hard it is to win in South Africa," Heaslip said – with only New Zealand and the B&I Lions having won a three-Test series in South Africa, with France having won a two-Test series.
"We are all too aware of how difficult it will be," he said of Saturday's outing in Johannesburg.
"We are not getting too carried away with ourselves.
Heaslip said he still sees South African rugby as a massive group of men who can play the game.
"Just tackling their second row forwards and back row forwards, they are big men, they can move, they are skilful.
"They know what they are about and they know how to play the game – it is pretty intimidating."
He said there is still a lot of "respect" for South African rugby.
"They are a scary challenge, no matter where you play them – home or away.
"It is a daunting task and we are all too aware of that."
Heaslip said they are not getting carried away with last week's win, despite the collective bravery that made him "proud" of his teammates – when they held on for the win, despite being down a man for almost an hour of the match.
"We are focussed on what we need to do this week," he said of the trip to Ellis Park – a venue he described as a "cool stadium".
He said that the Irish players have enough experience of playing back-to-back matches in the European Cup.
"I know it is at club level, but in Europe [the European Champions Cup] it is not too far off international rugby," Heaslip said.
"In those back-to-back games, one team can run away with it the one week and the following week it is a completely different side – the team that got beat up come flying back."
Despite all the analysis that come from the first game and going into the second game – which poses "all sorts of different challenges" – Heaslip said in international rugby it still boils down to the same thing: "The team that makes the least amount of mistakes is usually the team that gets the right outcome [victory].
"That is the essence of any international game, regardless if it is back-to-back.
"It does add an exciting new flavour to it.
"However, you try not to get too carried away with it and focus on what you are doing."
By Jan de Koning, in Johannesburg
@King365ed
@rugby365com
