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Springboks centre Damian De Allende has made some big claims about the differences between Ireland and South Africa ahead of their big summer series next month.

De Allende knows Ireland well having spent two seasons in Limerick with Munster Rugby, arriving alongside RG Snyman after South Africa’s 2019 Rugby World Cup win.

He believes the Boks have a clear advantage in having a countryman like Rassie Erasmus in charge, whereas he reckons Andy Farrell might not know much about Ireland because he’s an Englishman.

The centre also claims that the Irish are not “emotional” and suggests that they have never known struggle.

“We get the emotional driver. It’s hard to say. Andy Farrell is English so I don’t know if he knows much about Ireland, their history and what has happened in the past,” De Allende told RugbyPass TV.

“Because Rassie is South African and he loves South Africa so much – he’s played for the Springboks – he knows how to make us tick as South Africans and he knows how to make South Africa tick.

“The Irish don’t strike me as people that are emotional, I think South Africans are very emotional because a lot of us have tough pasts.

“I’m not saying Irish guys don’t have tough pasts but there’s a lot of us that came up from absolutely nothing and a lot of us appreciate that so much and appreciate what we had now. But there will always be that emotional drive that pushes us over the line or gets us going.

“We always think back to what we didn’t have, and what we have now.”