'South Africans just hate the Irish': McCloskey on growing 'beef' with Boks

Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey believes South Africa’s introduction into the United Rugby Championship has increased the “beef and grittiness” between Ireland and the Springboks.

The fierce rivalry between the two nations is one that has emerged over the past decade, with Ireland winning five of the nine encounters between the two sides since 2016. Rassie Erasmus’ side got the upper hand in their most recent encounter, however, physically dismantling Andy Farrell’s outfit up front in Dublin in November.

While McCloskey feels the hatred South African fans show towards Ireland is not necessarily reciprocated, he believes the URC has fanned the flames, with two of the four finals since the URC’s inception being contested between Irish and South African opposition, with Ireland coming out on top on both occasions.

Joining the For the Love of Rugby podcast recently, the towering centre explained how Ireland’s victory over the Springboks in the 2023 World Cup pool stages “stoked” the rivalry, despite the Boks retaining the Webb Ellis Cup a few weeks later.

While the rivalry is still “cordial,” the 28-cap Ireland international said, he added that the way South Africa fans have commandeered ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries is “not great craic.”

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20 Nov 26

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“It’s a weird one,” the 33-year-old said when discussing the rivalry. “I think with them being in the URC now, you see a lot more of the South Africans and there probably is a lot more beef and grittiness there.

“I don’t know what it’s come out of. It seems like South Africans just hate the Irish. I don’t know if we hate them as much, but I think it’s pretty cordial. I think there’d be good crack between the fans. We’ve not got to fighting them yet.

“Obviously we were the top two teams in the world coming up to that World Cup and South Africa went down and did it. We came up short, but had beaten them in the group stages and that probably stoked it a bit more.

“It’s not really craic either. Come on, that’s your own craic. In general, not great craic.”