Ireland head coach Scott Bemand says it will take an "even bigger effort" to beat South Africa on Saturday, as they look to finish their WXV Global Series campaign on a high.

Saturday's 13-point win against the Springboks made it three wins out of four games for Ireland in the new WXV series, with a rematch against the South Africans in Cape Town this weekend, as they look to maintain fifth-place in the world rankings.

Bemand's side pulled clear after a back and forth first half last week, coming from 17-14 behind to run out comfortable 40-27 victors in the first ever meeting of these sides on South African soil.

And while the head coach was "delighted" with his team's performance last week, he wants them to kick on even further in their final game of 2026.

"That was a really important game," the head coach said, after naming his side for Saturday's clash in Cape Town.

"If you're going to play a series, getting the first win on the board is a massive event and that leads us to this week, the second ascent, if you like, our second chance to back up a win and getting a series win over South Africa."

Bemand (below) was particularly pleased with how his side managed a notoriously physical South African pack.

"The things we're really pleased with, you come away to someone like South Africa, we know they've got massive physicality and actually in terms of how the game went, we knew it would be a really tough start.

"You've seen how the South Africans have gone when they've played the Black Ferns, they're always there at about half time and the game has only ever gone away from South Africa in the second half.

"So we knew there'd be a massive physical chance to start with. So certainly how our players dealt with that, we did everything we wanted to do to put ourselves in a position to get the game flowing in that second half.

"We know it's going to take an even bigger effort this week. We know we're going to have to overcome that physicality again but from what I've seen in training and what we know of the girls, if we can do that we'll make sure this time we get the game ticking and we get the scoreboard ticking away from the South Africans come the end of the game."

While the Springboks have been a dominant force in the men's game for the last 30 years, their women's programme is still in its infancy, with the South African rugby union kickstarting their investment in the women's game with the appointment of former Ireland international Lynne Cantwell as high-performance manager in 2021.

Cantwell has since returned to work with the IRFU, but the Springbok women have continued to make strides in recent seasons, reaching the quarter-finals of the World Cup last year, while they are currently ranked 10th in the world.

And Bemand believes an improving South Africa side can only be good for the women's game as a whole.

"I'm really pleased for world rugby really, that the South Africans are taking their women's rugby seriously now.

"And I think in three years' time when we get to the World Cup, I think the South Africans will be not only in the mix but they're going to be a much closer, much harder team for any opponent to play.

"So we know they're going to have a moment in the game [because of their physicality]. What we've got to do is be able to counteract that with our own moments and in terms of how dominant we can be in terms of the physicality and the ball and play piece.

"And if we can get our best game out there, we believe we've got the game that can take it away from them."

Ireland make two changes to their team from last week's 40-27 win, with scrum-half Aoibheann Reilly and full-back Niamh Gallagher (above) promoted to the starting team, as Emily Lane and Stacey Flood drop to the bench.

"Aoibheann and Emily have been going toe-to-toe. I think they're both incredibly good players. I think Emily had a fantastic game last week.

"Em played a run of games for us in the Six Nations. She's played in this Global Series. She'd started all but one of the Japan games.

"So yeah, that's a little bit of rotation and giving Aoibheann a shot from the start and Emily gets to come on and implement her game as a finisher.

"Niamh Gallagher's been going really well in training. We're really impressed how she went in that second Japanese game. And she's earned the right to come and have a crack at it.

"And that will give Stacey an opportunity to bring her ball play, her creative brilliance really from the bench to finish the game," the Ireland head coach added.