Ireland line up South Africa and Australia for 2014

Ireland have announced that they will play South Africa and Australia in next
year’s Autumn Internationals next November.

Joe Schmidt’s Ireland narrowly lost to the All Blacks in their last outing
but they will not get another chance to beat New Zealand next year.

Ireland will tackle South Africa and Australia in next year’s November international
Test series, the Irish Rugby Football Union announced on Friday.

Joe Schmidt’s side will meet South Africa, the world’s second-ranked side behind
New Zealand, at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on November 8 and will face off against
Australia at the same venue on November 22.

In between, they will play a “leading European Tier 2 nation”, most
probably Georgia, on November 15.

Ireland had a mixed experience in this year’s November Tests, comfortably
beating Samoa 40-9 but losing 32-15 to Australia and then going down to an agonising
24-22 defeat against New Zealand.