Emerging Ireland tour akin to 'Test environment'

Ireland coach Andrew Goodman says the Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa represents "a great opportunity" for players to "experience what a Test week is like".

The youthful Irish squad will face Currie Cup side the Pumas on Wednesday 2 October, Western Force four days later and then the Cheetahs on 9 October.

"We want to give the guys all the information that we would for a Test week. We’re going to drive expectations around the way we do things," said Goodman, who is assisting Simon Easterby with coaching duties on the tour.

"The provinces are doing amazing jobs and the players are very well coached – we want to build on that but also add our flavour and what makes us different."

New Zealander Goodman, assistant coach at Leinster, was appointed to the Ireland coaching team ahead of the 2024-25 season.

He emphasises that the forthcoming tour is an opportunity for young players to impress and to "build depth and have competitions for positions".

"From the last [Emerging Ireland in 2022] tour a lot of guys have gone on to represent Ireland. We want to see them in our structures and learn the way we play, the Ireland way of doing things – bits around our language and how we want to play the game.

"You get a lot more time for conversations, time around a computer, walk-throughs. We really want to push the boys and see how they cope with the amount of information they get given in a short amount of time."

Goodman believes the squad's three opponents will provide a stiff test.

"Those Currie Cup teams [Pumas and Cheetahs] have been in amongst their competition so they’ll have some good cohesion around how they are playing and Western Force, although they have been out of season, have been training for a long time now so they’ll be competitive. They’ll be some great games for us."