With Ireland taking on South Africa tomorrow in our Guinness Series opener, memories of victories over the Springboks spring to mind.
The 2006 win was particularly special with Ireland beating South Africa 32 - 15.
Eddie O'Sullivan joined us on Off The Ball tonight and analysing how they won in '06, he says that team was arguably the best of his time in charge.
"If we'd played the All Blacks last in that series instead of the Pacific Islands, which was really a disaster - we blew them away which wasn't much help to anybody - had we played the All Blacks we would have been in a great place to really have a rattle at them. But it wasn't to be."
O'Sullivan also recalled the gameplan which led to a strong start against South Africa in that Autumn match, having played the Springboks twice in that summer of '04.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
"I felt leaving South Africa - and I remember saying it to the team in Cape Town after we'd lost the second test - we'd put in two really good performances but they just had too much for us on the day. But I had this feeling that when they came back in '04 in the Autumn into Dublin in our own backyard, that if we were locked and loaded, we'd get them and I think the lads sensed that as well."
He also recalled that South Africa's head coach Jake White had made disparaging remarks about Irish rugby and how that impacted on the team. He also believes that the '04 win was more important even if the '06 win was more convincing.
Eddie also highlighted the importance of having a positive autumn to carry over into Ireland's Six Nations defence next Spring.
