High praise indeed.

Ahead of this weekend’s heavyweight clash between Ireland and South Africa at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Boks boss Aliister Coetezze has labeled Ireland as ‘The All Blacks of Europe.’

Coetzee’s Springboks face Joe Schmidt’s men this weekend, having won just 2 of their 6 games in this year’s Rugby Championship, and he knows how important this series is for South Africa.

The Boks head coach says they need to be at the kind of level they were at for their most recent Test with New Zealand, where they pushed the All Blacks right until the end, if they’re to have a chance of beating Ireland.

“It’s an important autumn series for us, the Test we played last against New Zealand, that’s the standard basically,” he said.

“For us it’s important because we have a huge respect for Ireland, they are a quality side and it’s almost close to your All Blacks side in Europe.

“They have a great coaching staff, Joe (Schmidt) is a great guy, a really good coach, and (Andy) Farrell his defence coach is really astute.

“So we’ve got to be at our best this weekend, we want to see constant improvement and the things we’ve done well, we’ve got to keep like that and also improve the other things.”

Coetzee says Ireland’s line-speed killed the All Blacks and says both Sexton and Murray are ‘world-class.’

“I’m happy (saying) that Ireland are the New Zealand of Europe. The line-speed killed the All Blacks, that’s the other thing we have to deal with,” he added

“It’s great to have a half-back pairing as your spine, they’re world-class players.”

Quotes via Independent.ie