Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

• 1 Steven Kitshoff
• 2 Malcolm Marx
• 3 Frans Malherbe
• 4 Eben Etzebeth
• 5 Lood de Jager
• 6 Siya Kolisi (Captain)
• 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit
• 8 Jasper Wiese

Backs

• 9 Jaden Hendrikse
• 10 Damian Willemse
• 11 Makazole Mapimpi
• 12 Damian de Allende
• 13 Jesse Kriel
• 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse
• 15 Cheslin Kolbe

Replacements

• 16 Bongi Mbonambi
• 17 Ox Nche
• 18 Vincent Koch
• 19 Franco Mostert
• 20 Deon Fourie
• 21 Kwagga Smith
• 22 Faf de Klerk
• 23 Willie le Roux

The team that SA sent over to Dublin in 2022 which lost by 3 points. Was that defeat soul destroying for them?

Couldn't give less of a toss about the outcome of these two "test matches". Much rather we used it to bring new guys into the fold (we won't because we never learn). SA will absolutely not be fielding their strongest 23. We'll probably take a full strength squad and win a test or two and then crown ourselves de facto World Champions because we beat the World Cup wimmers. But honestly after so many years of being the laughing stock of World rugby, all any Irish rugby fan should care about is winning a quarter final.

The arguments have become somewhat mixed up.

The initial complaint was that a guy who's played 13 provincial games this season should not be going to SA. 13 games is not a lot, this is the whole point of the IRFU player welfare programme, none of them are ever flogged.

OK, then the complaint became that we're not throwing in young guys. Well, Joe McCarthy turned 23 last month and he'll be going, plus whoever replaces Henderson, plus potentially someone else to replace Ryan who must be 50-50 at best to go.

Right across the squad, there will be young guys and less experienced guys travelling to SA.

There really isn't an issue here.

I meant that he's 50-50 to be fit - I have a sneaking suspicion he's being patched up for the CC final but isn't properly recovered. If he is, he's definitely going to SA.

always interesting to note some of the debuts made against Ireland. McCaw, Reid and Dagg come to mind. There are others. Not sure how many debuts we see against them. Carbery, not sure who else.

but we brought a cast of thousands for the Māori games and learned a lot more about more players than we would have from a couple of test cameos.

So the evidence for this latest stick to beat Ireland is one game we played against SA while EDDIE O’SULLIVAN s was in charge?

Irrefutable

Julian Savea, Rettallick and Aaron Smith all debuted on the 2012 tour I think. Savea got a hat trick on debut. I remember chatting with my barber in Ranelagh a couple of days before the match. He was pretty confident of Ireland getting their first win on the tour. I was telling him how good Savea was. Obviously the next time I went for a haircut, I was hailed as a rugby genius 😂

Irish Times reports that an Emerging Ireland tour to SA is being planned for September