RORY BEST WANTS to create history with Ireland in South Africa this summer by beating the Boks on their home soil for the first time.
The Ulster hooker captained Ireland in this year’s Six Nations, but there has been no confirmation that Best will lead Joe Schmidt’s side in June just yet.
The returning Peter O’Mahony has long been seen as a probable Ireland captain, but with the Munster back row focusing on rebuilding his own form and fitness over the coming months and then competing for an Ireland starting place, Best may retain the leadership.
“There’s obviously a fair bit of rugby to play between now and then back at our provinces,” said Best yesterday when asked if he would be excited about leading Ireland in South Africa.
“We’ll sign out tomorrow and look forward to knocking lumps out of each other for two months.
“If that’s the case we’ll get to South Africa and we’ve now won two games and we can go to South Africa and try to create history by winning Test matches over there. It’s been really enjoyable this Six Nations, and I suppose I’ll just wait and see if the old body holds up.”
Best had captained Ireland before this Six Nations, though this was his first full campaign as the official squad leader. Filling Paul O’Connell’s boots was never going to be easy, but the 33-year-old said he enjoyed the challenge.
“It’s been a massive honour to do it. It’s very different from provincial, where sometimes you’re the only voice. Here, you’re surrounded by leaders. Even someone like CJ Stander, who made his debut at the start of the Six Nations, captains Munster.
“He’s built and increased the amount he’s contributed each game that’s gone by in terms of talking to people
“For me it’s been enjoyable but I think probably the coaching staff and the way we’re prepared, the leadership group, has made it that way. It’s not left to one person, everyone’s contributing and we’re always trying to be better.
“We’re always trying to improve the leadership group and the coaches are always trying to push and make us better as an overall group.”
Best was encouraged that Ireland finished their Six Nations campaign with a win over Scotland in a “proper Test match” yesterday, backing up a victory over Italy the previous weekend.
Though the assessment overall of this campaign is one of disappointment, Best feels Ireland have shown resilience after the draw to Wales and defeats to France and England.
We’ve finished well against a really good Scottish team for a tough win, and it’s nice to finish with two wins.
“The next time we meet up will be gearing towards three very tough games in South Africa but the most pleasing thing is that when we were under a little bit of pressure after the England game is that we’ve stepped up and performed well in two games
“We can take a lot of positives from the fact that, hopefully if we can stay reasonably injury free, we have a really good squad to call on.”
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