Autumn Internationals: New Zealand have yet to win at the new Landsdowne Road

The November series of rugby Internationals will be Ireland's toughest ever itinerary, with South Africa visiting on 6 November, followed by Samoa, then New Zealand, and finally Argentina. Declan Murphy previews series. 

The team will want to do better than in the summer when they were trounced by the All Blacks, beaten by the New Zealand Maoris and, finally, by Australia. Here's a look ahead to each match.

South Africa

South Africa had a miserable Tri-Nations, only succeeding in winning one of the 6 matches played (3 against New Zealand, 3 against Australia). As well as having their backs up, they are the defending world champions, having won the World Cup in 2007; they will be aiming to be the first team to successfully defend the cup. The closest any team has come to defending the title is Australia, who won in 1999 and got to the final in 2003, and England, who won in 2003 and got to the final in 2007.

Ireland will be buoyed by the fact that the last time the Springboks played here, last year, they were beaten, 15-10, with most of the Irish players from that match available for selection this time around. In fact, the last 3 times that South Africa played in Ireland, they were beaten: in 2006 (32-15), and in 2004 (17-12).

Amazingly, those 3 matches account for 3 of the 4 times that Ireland have ever beaten South Africa. Out of the 19 games played between the sides, Ireland have won just 4 (the other win was in 1965, again in Landsdowne; Ireland have never beaten South Africa in South Africa), drawn one (1970, in Landsdowne) and lost 14. Ireland will need to pick a full-strength side to have a chance. This will be the first international in the new Landsdowne Road, so hopefully the boys will use that as motivation.

Samoa

Ireland's record against Samoa is a lot better, having won 3 of the 4 games ever played. Samoa aren't really in South Africa's league, it has to be said. This will be the game where coach Declan Kidney picks some of the less experienced players to see how they do, rather than risk them against the bigger teams. It will be a hard, bruising game, though. Samoa are known for their hard tackling and the Irish players will need to be ready to get bruised a lot. This will be the easiest of the games - but but it still won't be easy.

New Zealand

The All Blacks have a near-perfect record against Ireland, having won 22 of the 23 games played between the countries. The sole match they didn't win was a draw in 1973. A terrible record, and it has worsened in recent years. On occasion, Ireland has dominated in the first minutes but been unable to retain their form for the full 80 minutes.

Matches that stick out in the memory were in the 1995 World Cup, when Ireland scored tries in the first few minutes, but New Zealand came back to win the match. Older fans will remember the Willie Anderson-led 1989 team giving New Zealand a scare before succumbing.

More recently, the Irish have tended to start badly and never recover. Even in Ireland, where the team tends to do better, the matches have still been one-sided: 22-3 in Croke Park in 2008, with Ireland never seeming in with a chance of winning. 45-7 in 2005; and 40-29 in 2001 (actually the most points ever scored against New Zealand by an Irish team).

The only positive thing to say is that New Zealand have never beaten Ireland in the new stadium. Hopefully, the team will see this as a chance to start a new tradition, to leave a renewed legacy. If this team doesn't beat the All Blacks, I doubt any Irish team will. Hopefully Jaimie Heaslip will keep his head this time and not get red-carded like he did in the summer game. Not having Paul O'Connell will be a big loss. New Zealand have picked a very good squad for their series of matches. Having dominated the Tri-Nations outright, winning all 6 of their matches, they'll want to retain their form. Hopefully, Ireland will keep it close.

Argentina

Ireland's bogey team in recent years. They knocked us out of 2 world cups (1999 and 2007) and have been the better side overall in recent years. As an aside, this will be Felipe Contemponi's first game against his former Leinster teammates since leaving the club. He, of course, played for Leinster for many years, before moving to french club Toulon, who are locked together with Munster in the Heineken Cup 'pool of death' (all 4 teams have an equal chance of progression, only 2 can). Difficult game to judge.