Bundee Aki (http://bit.ly/2iLvM35)
I'm seriously looking forward to going to the match against the Springboks this weekend, I’m a bit concerned though that the word on the street is that this a done deal = we just have to show up and win. We don't want ot be complacent , that's for sure In fairness, consistency is not the friend of the Springboks = are we going to ger the side that lost 57 nil to the All Blacks, or 25-24? Hopefully the former! In the last two years the Boks have been all over the place but they’ve been a lot better this year, not sure how they got two draws against Austalia in the rugby Championship because they should have won both. They are typically massive, although at seven Pieter Steph du Toit is an amazing lock – he’s brilliant – but he’s no seven. Connie Oosthuizen improves their front row immeasurably too.
From our side,the pack looks good, with pretty well first choices available. The back line is not that settled though – I'm happy to see Aki starting, but while I think Stockdale is a fantastic player, he's untested at this level, so that could go either way. The back three won't have played together at all. Tactically, with Joe Schmidt wehave an edge, and the South Africans have been to talk us up in this regard - we are the 'All Blacks of the Northern Hemisphere' apparently. Hang on, we're in a different league here, we've only lost twice this year, the All Blacks have lost three times, show some respect!
Despite my fears, I think we'll have the tactics to win this match, and the Boks are notoriously sluggish on the end of year tours, so Ireland it is.
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Robbie Henshaw, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 Jacob Stockdale, 10 Johnny Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Sean O’Brien, 6 Peter O’Mahony, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Iain Henderson, 3 Tadhg Furlong, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Cian Healy
Replacements: 16 Rob Herring, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 John Ryan, 19 James Ryan, 20 Rhys Ruddock, 21 Kieran Marmion, 22 Joey Carbery, 23 Darren Sweetnam
South Africa: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Dillyn Leyds, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Francois Louw, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth (c), 3 Coenie Oosthuizen, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Tendai Mtawarira
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Uzair Cassiem, 21 Rudy Paige, 22 Handré Pollard, 23 Francois Venter
Saturday 11th November
International Match
Italy 14:00 Fiji
Scotland 14:30 Samoa
England 15:00 Argentina
Wales 17:15 Australia
Ireland 17:30 South Africa
France 19:45 New Zealand
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