Rhys Ruddock: We’re at our best when we are fearful

Like everyone else in the Irish squad, Rhys Ruddock is readying himself for an uber-physical challenge from the wounded and cornered Springboks in Ellis Park this Saturday.

Hence, although even more history beckons, first off there is an acknowledgement that not only will Ireland’s performance will need to be better again in Saturday’s second test, but they also need to retain a certain fear factor.

“The first thing we did when we got to Joburg was to review the game and although there was a lot of positives, there was also a lot of things to work on,” said Ruddock. “I think that was the key message going into the start of the week that there’s still another sort of 10 or 15 per cent that we can develop early in this week into a good performance on the weekend.”

“The other message is that we know we’re at our best when we’re a little bit fearful of what the team we’re going to be facing is about and what they’re capable of, and that’s why it’s no different this week.”

We know that South Africa are probably better than they were last week and we know they’re a difficult team to beat when we’re on the top of our game. So all the focus is going to be on preparing ourselves to the best of our ability, having a clear plan going into the game and being able to execute under the pressure that we’re going to feel on Saturday.”

Although last Saturday’s latest six-minute cameo marked Ruddock’s sixth cap of the season, all have been off the bench after he was called up as a late replacement during the World Cup, when he came on for the last 10 minutes of the quarter-final defeat to Argentina.

SOS calls for Ruddock have been the story of Ruddock’s test career, ever since he was hauled out of the 2010 Under-20 World Championships in Argentina for Ireland’s tour to New Zealand and Australia, making his debut as a 19-year-old replacement in the defeat to the Wallabies at the Subiaco Oval.

His next cap didn’t come until four seasons later, in March 2014, as a replacement in the handsome home win over Italy, before he made his first start in the second test in Argentina in June that year.

Ruddock's full home debut against the Springboks in November 2014 came at short notice on the morning of the match when his roommate, Chris Henry, fell ill. Ruddock scored a try and had a storming game in his least familiar back-row role of openside, and also played there in the win over Australia a fortnight later, but that was the last of his three starts.

Given he is the most readymade blindside flanker replacement for the suspended CJ Stander, presumably Ruddock will start there against the Boks next Saturday.

“He’s obviously disappointed and I think anybody would be in those circumstances,” said Ruddock of his fellow Irish back-rower. “But credit to the guy he is, he’s turned up to training with an unbelievable attitude and been throwing himself around as he always does whether he’s starting or not.”

“So I haven’t really noticed it in terms of his commitment to training but from chatting to him one-on-one he’s obviously disappointed as you’d expect.”

It’s been said that the Boks lacked physicality but either way Ruddock is not expecting that to be the case here.

“I was only on there for a short period,” Ruddock said of last Saturday’s six minutes on the pitch, “but every time I play against the South Africans it is something that you probably notice more than any other team; just the physicality of the game. In terms of the way we played we probably brought an added physicality and that’s got to be the focus again this week in order to be able to stick with a team like South Africa.”

“But we are probably expecting South Africa to lift their level of physicality. We know that if we can improve that small margin, maybe with 15 on the field and being able to stick to our systems defensively, we can hopefully cope with that physicality.”

The mild temperatures and cloud cover helped alleviate some of the fears about altitude during Tuesday’s training session.

I suppose we were all a bit worried about how we’d find the altitude but we got that kind of high intensity hit. We were able to test out the legs and things and we’re all really looking forward to playing at Ellis Park. We’ve heard all about the history of the stadium and it’s supposed to be an incredible place to play so we’re looking forward to the game. Everyone’s feeling really good after training as well.”