With the expansive Lions leading South Africa’s way in Super Rugby and new Springbok coach Allister Coetzee confirming that the Boks are aiming to play with an attacking mindset this year‚ there is heady excitement about what lies ahead against Ireland. Coetzee has talked of being “more expansive” with players making better decisions. But attack coach Johann van Graan doused some of that optimism‚ at least in the short-term‚ after the Boks’ first two training sessions in Stellenbosch. “Allister had brought in a lot of exciting ideas‚” Van Graan said.“The big question is how you balance that with the amount of time we have to prepare before the series against Ireland‚ and how you balance those ideas with winning Test matches?“Allister did say we want to be more expansive and use our decision-making more‚ but we need to win. I believe he has picked the players that can do it.“The No 10s available can play a kicking game and they can play a running game. It could be raining for the first Test next week‚ so we are planning for all scenarios.“In terms of attack‚ we have a lot of new exciting ideas.” Van Graan made no secret of the fact that the Boks will also evaluate opponents on a case-by-case basis and adapt their game plan to those needs.“Northern hemisphere teams are slightly different and Ireland has a new defensive coach in Andy Farrell‚” Van Graan said.“They use the rush defence and come hard off the line. Once you are behind the advantage line it’s difficult to attack‚ but it gives you space in different areas of the field. If there is space in behind‚ we are definitely going to use that space to our advantage (read ‘kick’).“We have exciting players with big skills sets such as Willie le Roux‚ JP Pietersen‚ Ruan Combrinck and Damian de Allende and we are going to incorporate their abilities.”The five players SA coach Coetzee cannot leave outThese are five players coach Allister Coetzee can't ignore: Farrell‚ who will be on his first tour as Ireland’s new defence coach‚ talked up the emerald green’s chances when he addressed the Irish media this week.“We want to win all games‚ we just don't want to rest on our laurels‚” Farrell said. “We don't want to go down to SA and win one game‚ we want to go for the series‚ to win every game.“We are after being on a difficult season‚ have 10 days to plan‚ the same as the South Africans will do so it is all evens at it stands.“Home advantage will probably swing it a little bit their way. It is an exciting 10 days ahead because it is time to get going.“We have a fantastic coaching team here that looks at the bigger picture. My department is defence and it's going to be tested in South Africa‚ so I've got my hands full‚” he said.“The challenge is one that really excites me because I feel that defence is about attitude‚ and we want to create history so we have to show some real proper attitude. “We've got a couple of days in camp to get our systems sorted out‚ and then we'll talk about the mentality of going into the cauldron (in SA) and win a game in South Africa. That's my role and it's up to me to put a stamp on that.”TMG Digital/TMG Sport..