'I love it. I respect it.' - No split opinion on Boks bench from Farrell

Ireland coach sticks with his own numerical mix among replacements but lauds South African ingenuity ahead of showdown

BENCH DEBATE: Jack Crowley and Head Coach Andy Farrell at Ireland training in Tours. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Andy Farrell has insisted he is not concerned by South Africa’s enlarged “Bomb Squad” of forward replacements and backed Ireland’s bench to deliver the required impact in tomorrow night’s World Cup pool showdown at Stade de France.

The world champions have named seven forwards and just one backline player as back-ups for the Pool B clash between the top two teams in the World Rugby rankings with Ireland boss Farrell applauding the innovation, first rolled out at Twickenham last month in a record victory over New Zealand.

Yet the head coach said he never considered following suit and yesterday named a more conventional five forwards and three backs as the number one side’s replacements.

"It's knowing all sorts of different permutations,” Farrell said. “Even with a five-three split you can't cover everything but you need to be adaptable and it’s something we’ve worked hard within our planning over the last few years to be able to do that, to adapt. And I suppose they’ve done exactly the same with a seven-one split in mind and I love it. I respect it.

“I like the fact that they know their squad bringing four scrum-halves over and a hooker that’s not really played in a specialist position before. It shows that they know their players, know their team and they know in which direction they want to go. Hopefully they think the same about us as well.” 

 Asked if facing seven fresh forwards during the game put his players under increased players, Farrell said: “I don’t see it like that at all. I’m pretty confident in the five forwards that we’ve got coming off the bench and the impact that they’re going to have in the game and the type of game that we want to play when that happens.

“It doesn’t have any bearing as far as that’s concerned. Obviously we’ve been able to analyse them before with a seven-one split and not that much changes, obviously being fresh and set-piece-wise the dominance they got in that (New Zealand) game but we back our players to do the same.”

It was suggested to Farrell that his opposite number Jacques Nienaber may have been trying to tease out what approach Ireland would take in response but he gave the notion short shrift.

“I don't know. It doesn't really bother me at all. It's just about us. We have to be good, we have to play really well to beat the world champions and rightly so because they're in good form and barring us and our team, our management and the Irish people all over the world, I think everyone else thinks that they're the favourites and they're going to win this game.

“And I can see why because of the form that they've showed in the last couple of games but we don't think like that. We're ready for a tough battle and it will take its own course, I'm sure.” 

 Rather than focusing on the make-up of the Springboks’ bench, Ireland have instead been referencing the last meeting between the two sides in Dublin last November when the world champions were beaten 19-16.

“We analyse South Africa like we analyse everyone else but when it really comes down to it we take care of ourselves more than anything else and try and understand our plan,” Farrell said.

“I think more importantly rather than the seven-one split, which is a bit irrelevant to us, is the last game we played against each other.

“I'm sure they think they know us a little bit better and maybe that might have influenced the seven-one split but we feel the same. We feel that we could have performed better on that occasion and both teams get the chance to show that at the weekend.”