Ireland v South Africa: Paul O'Connell backs rookies Jared Payne and Robbie Henshaw to shine against Springboks The summer tour of Argentina aside, Saturday will be the first time Ireland have played since O'Driscoll retired in a blaze of glory, holding aloft the Six Nations trophy in Paris. His departure has indirectly contributed to the biggest story of the week, the selection of Payne and Henshaw at outside and inside centre respectively, leading many to criticise head coach Joe Schmidt's decision not to bring back Gordon D'Arcy following his recent calf injury. South Africa certainly have experience on their side, boasting a combined total of 672 caps, plus a further 316 on the bench. They also arrive buoyed by last month's 27-25 victory over New Zealand, which ended the All Blacks" 22-match unbeaten run. But while O'Connell allowed himself to get involved in a bit of a love-in with his South African counterpart Victor Matfield yesterday, describing the 37-year-old veteran as the "best line-out forward in the world" after Matfield praised O'Connell as "the best player I've played against" earlier this week, the Irishman promised his side would be ready for a bitter scrap against possibly the finest South African team he has ever faced. "They are close to it," he said. They have retained all the qualities which they used when they beat us on the Lions tour [in 2009], when they won the World Cup [in 2007]. They are still so physical. And they have added another element to it now with a really good attacking game. The way they've been playing with ball in hand recently, they've an extra string to their bow that they maybe didn't have when they won the World Cup, or they didn't maybe use then or in 2009. So it makes the challenge even bigger again. O'Connell added that a win against one of the southern hemisphere giants less than 12 months out from a World Cup would give his team huge confidence. "You would love to be going into the World Cup with some big scalps," he said. We have a three-game Test series and we'd love to take one of the big southern hemisphere teams down. Ireland's last success against the Springboks was a 15-10 win at Dublin's Croke Park in 2009, a match that took place while Lansdowne Road was being redeveloped. In their last meeting in Dublin in November 2012, South Africa won 16-12.