Conor Murray wins his 100th cap and Robert Baloucoune makes his third start as Ireland begin the new season with a heavyweight Bank of Ireland Nations Series showdown with South Africa at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 5.30pm).
2022 BANK OF IRELAND NATIONS SERIES: Saturday, November 5
IRELAND v SOUTH AFRICA, Aviva Stadium, 5.30pm (live Virgin Media Two/Virgin Media Player/Amazon Prime/RTÉ Radio 1/IRFU Live Blog)
Team News: Scrum half Murray joins Ireland’s 100-cap club – only the eighth player to do so – and is one of just four members of the selected team that started the last game between the two sides in November 2017.
Tadhg Furlong, Peter O’Mahony and captain Jonathan Sexton were the others to start against the Springboks five years ago, when Ireland ran out convincing 38-3 winners.
Cian Healy, who is named on the bench for today’s match, also started the 2017 game, while Rob Herring, James Ryan and Joey Carbery were among the replacements that day.
Tadhg Beirne and Jack Conan have never played for Ireland against South Africa but featured against the Springboks for the British and Irish Lions last year. Furlong, Robbie Henshaw and Murray also played in that series.
Henshaw was due to start this evening, but a slight hamstring injury saw him withdrawn from the team yesterday. Ulster’s Stuart McCloskey comes into the midfield to win his seventh cap, with versatile Leinster back Jimmy O’Brien added to the bench for a possible debut.
Behind an unchanged pack from July’s series-clinching third Test win over New Zealand, Baloucoune and Garry Ringrose come in for the injured James Lowe and the suspended Bundee Aki respectively.
McCloskey, Baloucoune, Ringrose, Caelan Doris, Jamison Gibson-Park, Mack Hansen, Hugo Keenan, Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan, Kieran Treadwell and Josh van der Flier have never played South Africa before at senior level.
Baloucoune missed the summer tour of New Zealand through injury but started against both the Windhoek Draught Griquas and the Toyota Cheetahs for Emerging Ireland last month.
Out-half Sexton will make his 109th appearance for Ireland this evening, becoming the country’s fifth most-capped player of all-time and pushing current forwards coach Paul O’Connell into sixth position.
Speaking ahead of the eagerly-awaited clash with the Springboks, head coach Andy Farrell said: “It is a different challenge which is a great thing for us, because it’s something we need to judge ourselves on, the style of play that they play because of what’s down the track.
“They’re obviously a world class side. They 100% play to their strengths and I think that’s what rugby is all about, isn’t it? Finding out what your strength is and applying it, and they do it better than most.
“It’s a great match-up. It’s priceless for both teams. Yeah, it’s exciting because of what’s down the track, but for the here and now, well it’s pretty good as well.”
He added: “I suppose there’s more know-how of what’s coming (because of the South African teams being in the URC). We all know that international level is a big step up.
“Playing against the World champions here is going to be a massive step up for everyone concerned. It’s something that everyone wants to gauge themselves on. We want to gauge ourselves on how we perform against a side that we’ve not played for a good few years.”
Meanwhile, South African flyer Cheslin Kolbe will play his first Test at full-back when he makes a return to the team for the first time since July.
Kolbe, fellow speed merchant Kurt-Lee Arendse and out-half Damian Willemse are the three changes to the Springboks side that defeated Argentina 38-21 in the final round of the Rugby Championship in September.
For this evening’s clash with Ireland, head coach Jacques Nienaber has put together a lightning-quick back-three made up of Kolbe, who will provide out-half cover, Arendse and Mapimpi.
Former Munster centre Damian de Allende combines with Jesse Kriel in midfield, while Willemse, a United Rugby Championship winner with the DHL Stormers last season, leads the back-line alongside Jaden Hendrikse.
There are 499 caps’ worth of experience in an unchanged pack, led by captain Siya Kolisi. It is backed up by their ‘Bomb Squad’ bench, which includes the front row trio of Bongi Mbonambi, Ox Nche and Vincent Koch, who has signed for Stade Francais.
Locks Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager, along with Kolisi, Kriel, de Allende, Pieter-Steph du Toit and hooker Malcolm Marx, started the 2017 Test in Dublin which Ireland won in convincing fashion, 38-3.
“We selected a team we believe contains the best combinations to counter the threats posed by Ireland,” said Nienaber, the former Munster defence coach who guided the ‘Boks to a second place finish in the Rugby Championship.
“Damian (Willemse) has done well for us at out-half, and he is continuing to grow as a player in that role, while we think Cheslin has the potential to add a new dimension to our game at full-back.
“He was sidelined for a while after breaking his jaw against Wales, but he has played four 80-minute matches for Toulon since returning to play, and we are confident that he will step up to the challenge.”
He added: “Ireland are the top ranked team in the world currently and they’ve shown in the past that they can be a force to reckoned with in Dublin.
“We last faced them on their home patch in 2017 and they beat us 38-3 in that match, and they also beat us here 29-15 in 2014 and they will draw confidence from that.
“Similarly to us, they will also view this as a vital clash with an eye on next year’s Rugby World Cup in France where we will cross paths in the pool stages.
“Obviously we are a long way out from the World Cup, but we have a limited number of matches left before the competition and the preparation doesn’t get better than playing a side we will face in the World Cup and the number one side in the world.
“This match is important for us for many reasons, one of which is to test our player combinations with the World Cup less than a year away.”
IRELAND: Hugo Keenan (UCD/Leinster); Robert Baloucoune (Enniskillen/Ulster), Garry Ringrose (UCD/Leinster), Stuart McCloskey (Bangor/Ulster), Mack Hansen (Connacht); Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster) (capt), Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster); Andrew Porter (UCD/Leinster), Dan Sheehan (Lansdowne/Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Lansdowne/Munster), James Ryan (UCD/Leinster), Peter O’Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster), Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster), Caelan Doris (St. Mary’s College/Leinster).
Replacements: Rob Herring (Ballynahinch/Ulster), Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster), Finlay Bealham (Buccaneers/Connacht), Kieran Treadwell (Ballymena/Ulster), Jack Conan (Old Belvedere/Leinster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster), Joey Carbery (Clontarf/Munster), Jimmy O’Brien (Naas/Leinster).
SOUTH AFRICA: Cheslin Kolbe (Toulon); Kurt-Lee Arendse (Vodacom Bulls), Jesse Kriel (Canon Eagles), Damian de Allende (Wild Knights), Makazole Mapimpi (Cell C Sharks); Damian Willemse (DHL Stormers), Jaden Hendrikse (Cell C Sharks); Steven Kitshoff (DHL Stormers), Malcolm Marx (Kubota Spears), Frans Malherbe (DHL Stormers), Eben Etzebeth (Cell C Sharks), Lood de Jager (Wild Knights), Siya Kolisi (Cell C Sharks) (capt), Pieter-Steph du Toit (Toyta Verblitz), Jasper Wiese (Leicester Tigers).
Replacements: Bongi Mbonambi (Cell C Sharks), Ox Nche (Cell C Sharks), Vincent Koch (unattached), Franco Mostert (Honda Heat), Deon Fourie (DHL Stormers), Kwagga Smith (Shizuoka Blue Revs), Faf de Klerk (Canon Eagles), Willie le Roux (Toyota Verblitz).
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
Assistant Referees: Mathieu Raynal (France), Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Television Match Official: Stuart Terheege (England)
Pre-Match Quotes: Jonathan Sexton (Ireland) –
Every Test match you play, you want to win. That goes without saying. How you do it is the most important thing and that’s…you’ve got to play well, you’ve got to go out and try score tries against a pretty tough defensive team.
“A team that comes off the line higher and a team that tries to make life as difficult as possible for you to put you under big pressure. So, it will be a very different test to what we had in the summer (in New Zealand).
“You know, obviously we referred to the summer series as the biggest test you can face in rugby. It is in many ways. But it is a different test coming this weekend.
“If we want to do special things over the next 18 months we’ve got to beat different teams playing different games and they are very different to New Zealand. They are almost unique. They are the nearest team to England maybe in terms of how they play. It will be tough.
“It’s trying to implement our game-plan and try play as quick as we can. How we do that is with good set-piece, good ruck. Physicality is going to be a big part of the game, like it is for every game.
“It could be teeming down rain, it could be windy, so we might have to play an arm wrestle against them, you just don’t know.
“We’ll do what the game dictates and what the conditions dictates, what the ref dictates. We have to be open-minded enough to be able to do a bit of everything, I think.”
Siya Kolisi (South Africa) –
Of course we have touched on the last time we played against Ireland (in 2017), but this is a whole new team. For us it’s something that we can’t forget. I remember we were here and it was very tough.
“It was one of the toughest days for most of us in the Springbok jersey. But it’s a different team, a lot of guys weren’t there that game and they (Ireland) have evolved as a team. They’re much better than they were that time.
“We want to build on what we’ve done this year. The biggest thing for us – we’re third in the world right now – is we want to give our best against the number one.
“World cups are different, it’s different when you get there. But it’s important for us as a group to see where we are against the number one team in the world.
“It might make an impact, whoever wins might go one up on the other team, but World Cups are completely different things when you get there.”
Pre-Match Links –
Ireland v South Africa – Coming To The Match? All You Need To Know
In Pics: Ireland Captain’s Run At Aviva Stadium
Farrell Praises Murray As He Joins Ireland’s 100-Cap Club
‘We Back Our Skills, We Back Our Intent’ – Baloucoune
Murray: I Couldn’t Think Of A Better Group To Reach 100 Caps With
Ringrose Relishing ‘First Crack’ At Springboks
Recent Meetings –
2016: Summer Tour First Test: South Africa 20 Ireland 26, Newlands Stadium, Cape Town; Summer Tour Second Test: South Africa 32 Ireland 26, Emirates Airline Park, Johannesburg; Summer Tour Third Test: South Africa 19 Ireland 13, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth
2017: GUINNESS Series: Ireland 38 South Africa 3, Aviva Stadium
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