Stockdale ticks every box for Ireland, says Earls

the gym, you know. The lads in general are trying to make him feel comfortable like they would with any new lad.

“That’s what we try and do, we’ll try and (joke with) him a bit, but then if you’re not being slagged you know you’re in trouble.

“It is something you do during the week at training if you haven’t played with a fella or trained with a fella, you grab him for a cup of coffee or you sit down and you chat and you let him know what way you like to talk on the field.

“You find out what kind of talk he likes to hear and then you just get the feel of it at training. So it is all done the same really, regarding who is inside you and their skill set.

“Everyone’s just delighted to be here and there are lads who aren’t here who have injuries as well, so there’s a still a handful of lads that could be here and it’s just on form, the way fellas are now.

“There’s a good buzz around the place, everyone is playing well and deserves to be here.

“We’re all on the one mission now, to try to get the win over South Africa and hopefully get the three wins in November.”

Lofty ambitions for sure, but Ireland come into this November ranked higher than all three opponents and knowing that they are kicking things off against a South Africa side who are not the fearsome Springboks of old.

A first meeting between the pair since the summer of 2016, Earls is one who believes that, despite a first ever win on South African soil during that tour, the side blew the chance for series success.

“We have gone back looking at those videos and we were so close to winning a series down there and a lot of it was around our own mistakes that we have, hopefully, learnt from,” he admitted.

“South Africa went through a poor patch there for a while but they seem to have found themselves again and they’re on the up. They’re going to be extremely dangerous and I think they’ll be better than 2016.”