Robbie Fleck is the latest former Springbok who believes Ireland’s Six Nations credentials will be put in context when they tackle the world champions in July.

Despite Ireland’s dominance in the 2024 Six Nations, 1995 World Cup hero Joel Stransky said the real evaluation of their standards in relation to Rassie Erasmus’ world-beaters will be in the back-to-back Tests in the Republic.

Fleck joined the debate, discussing the Six Nations with host Hanyani Shimange and ex-Boks Schalk Burger and Jean de Villiers on World Rugby’s latest instalment of Boks Office. Fleck said Ireland’s supremacy can only be measured against “quality opposition”.

“You need the traditional guys to be strong. Pretty disappointing England. France have been disappointing as well. So there’s only one team in it really,” he said.

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“Patches of brilliance with Scotland which you always get with Gregor Townsend and the players he selects. Finn Russell, Huw Jones and Duhan van der Merwe, they’ve all been good, but there’s no real competition for Ireland, which has been quite frustrating and disappointing, to be honest.

“Everyone talks about the Irish now being No 1 in the world, but they can’t be because they are not playing against quality opposition.

“Yes, we’ll see when we play Ireland in the [July] Tests, but for now the Six Nations has been disappointing in terms of the overall product.

“There’s one really good genuine side in the Irish team and they deserve that, they are very well coached, they’ve got quality players, but England have been disappointing, France have been disappointing.”

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