Ireland primed for final act of gruelling season

Ireland have played 16 internationals since last August, when they began preparations for the Rugby World Cup, and make it 17 they take on the Springboks in the final test at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium on Saturday.

"There were times when you got to the last game of the season and you've one foot on the beach but that's definitely not the case now. You can tell by the way we went about training on Tuesday and Thursday, there was a real intensity about it," Best told a news conference on Friday.

"In terms of the body, it's a massive test match, but it's an opportunity to go out and win a series in South Africa."

The series is tied 1-1 after injury-plagued Ireland, with no previous test victories in South Africa, scored a shock 26-20 triumph in the first game but they lost last Saturday in Johannesburg having led by 16 points. The hosts stormed back for a dramatic 32-26 victory.

"We can take a lot of positives from the first 50-60 minutes of the last test and large parts of the 80 minutes of the first test so we're going in and we feel that we have the game-plan to win it," Best added.

"We feel confident in our ability. We know it's going to be very tough. We've said that before every test so far. It's going to be a massive game, it's going to be a physical game and there's no doubt the Springboks will have their tails up after the last quarter of the previous test."