Murray Kinsella Reports from Tours

IRELAND ASSISTANT COACH Simon Easterby has confirmed that Ireland are unlikely to deviate from the 5/3 split of forwards and backs they usually use on their bench for this Saturday’s World Cup clash with South Africa.

The Springboks yesterday named a 7/1 bench split for the Pool B meeting in Paris, prompting debate over whether Ireland should opt for a 6/2 split of their own to counter the South Africans’ decision.

However, Easterby has indicated that Ireland are intent on focusing on their own approach, rather than reacting to the Boks. Andy Farrell is due to name his matchday 23 tomorrow afternoon.

“We haven’t tinkered with that split before and there might be times where through injury or other reasons [that happens], but I’d say we’ll be fairly conventional in what we do at the weekend in terms of the split,” said Easterby in Tours this afternoon.

“It’s not something we’ve taken a huge amount of time looking at. It’s a talking point but at the end of the day, it’s their decision and strategy to go with that. Ours will be slightly different.

“Obviously, they believe that’s the way they need to set themselves to beat us on Saturday. Just like we’ll be playing the way we want to beat South Africa. Listen, it’s a talking point. I don’t think it changes anything for us, to be honest.”

Ireland back row Jack Conan is set to miss out on making a return from injury on the bench this weekend, with Easterby essentially ruling him out of the Springboks clash.

Conan has been sidelined with a foot injury since early August and though he has made progress by returning to running on the pitch and taking some part in team training, this weekend will come too soon.

More positively, tighthead prop Finlay Bealham and hooker Dan Sheehan are back in the selection mix.

“Everyone trained really well today, to be honest,” said Easterby. “Jack’s probably the only one that’s slightly behind in terms of being able to get himself right for the weekend.

“He’s recovering well as the medics and conditioners get him up to speed and he’s probably on track for where we thought he’d be at this stage. He’s done really well, we’re happy with his progress.

“Finlay and Dan both trained really well today, so they’re back in the mix.”

Much of the pre-match discussion of this game has focused on the Springboks, despite Ireland being the world-number-one team and currently enjoying a 15-game winning streak.

Easterby doesn’t seem bothered that most of the attention is on South Africa.

“I think everyone knows this game was always going to be the big game that we had in the first three rounds, we’ve built up nicely through Romania and Tonga, we’ve ironed out a few things in our attack, the same defensively,” said Easterby.

“We were tested way more against Tonga. I think we always knew that this was going to be the pivotal game leading up to Scotland two weeks after. We’re just going about our business at the moment. I guess press and media and supporters in particular are speculating about what they might bring.

“We obviously are really confident and trust in what we’ve been doing, not just recently but in the last year and a half, two years and this is what we’ve been building towards. Hopefully we will see plenty of that on Saturday as well.”