Eddie O'Sullivan believes Ireland's tour to South Africa was an opportunity lost in terms of results as Joe Schmidt's side lost out 2-1 in the three-test series.
With the Springboks in transition, Ireland failed to win the series despite a famous victory in Game 1.
And Eddie feels that the overall series loss stems from the second game of the three rather than the most recent defeat.
"I think we'll probably get our real gauge of South Africa when they play in the Rugby Championship in the next couple of months. But my feeling is that it won't be a happy time for them. They're behind Australia for sure and well behind New Zealand and whether they're up for it against Argentina, we'll have to find out," he told Off The Ball, adding that the Springboks were in a state of flux due to a change of coach and injury issues.
"On that basis, I would go along with the comment that it was a great opportunity lost. But I think the opportunity wasn't really lost last Saturday, even though it was close game. The opportunity was lost in Johannesburg the week before, really. That's where we let the whole thing slip."
But Eddie believes the addition of new players to the wider squad during the tour is an "upside" as we now have a stronger selection to choose from and have more variety to the approach.
"No doubt about it, [Schmidt] has a much deeper squad and he has expanded the game to a place where he has more strings to his bow," he said.
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