The odds on Robbie Henshaw starting in midfield against South Africa on Saturday have shortened further, with Simon Zebo and the returning Tommy Bowe set to occupy the wings. Interestingly, having been presented to the media yesterday, it appears as if Felix Jones is to be named on the bench as cover for full-back and wing.
If Henshaw is to start (and Paddy Powers have shortened his odds to 1/10 to do so), this increases the likelihood of his midfield partner being Gordon D’Arcy, given the experience he and Tommy Bowe would provide alongside the 21-year-old.
As to whether Henshaw is ready to face the Springboks, defence coach Les Kiss said: “I think Robbie Henshaw is ready, but in the end you can’t say suddenly here are 10 Test caps, you are now ready. You have got to play them. It is the same when you first come into a provincial team, you have got to play them and you have got to find out.”
Better place
“You are not always perfect but if you have got enough of the right things right, it becomes a plan you can give them.
“As with most of our players, we try to see ensure they are in a better place. I think if Robbie was to play, to start, I think he would be ready.”
Johnny Sexton and Rob Kearney trained fully, as did Chris Henry and Rhys Ruddock having previously been rested due to heavy workloads of late. Rory Best remains a significant doubt, with a calf strain, prior to tomorrow’s team announcement.
Were Best to be ruled out, it would take to 17 the number of Test players who have been sidelined through injury for this game. Given this number includes Marty Moore, it seems safe to presume that the uncapped Nathan White would have been in the match-day 23 had he not suffered a ruptured tendon in his arm at training last week.
With that in mind, Kiss confirmed that Mike Ross trained yesterday, and implied he would be starting whether fully fit or not having being sidelined for four weeks. "The truth is, he has got to front up for us and that is all there is to it, and put in as many minutes as he can."
Even without Best, Ireland could retain 10 of the starting line-up that squared up to the All Blacks, and 10 of the side that kicked off the Six Nations-winning finale in Paris. Kiss accepted that they will need to hit the ground running more so than last November, when beating Samoa – "It was probably a little messy to tell you the truth despite five tries to nil" – and losing to Australia.
“Australia gave us a lesson because we weren’t on the money,” said Kiss, emphasising the side’s breakdown and defensive issues that day.
But they did go on to produce their best performance of the three against New Zealand. Hence the focus on being mentally switched on from the off in order to be “technically accurate and really good around the contact area with and without the ball.”
“We know they’re a massively physical team, and they’ve also got more width in their game now, so it’s going to be a massive challenge. The boys know what’s required and expected in terms of how we start this campaign.
Strong core
The current Springboks’ greater desire to run from deep and play with more width has increased Kiss’s challenge.
“In the past you could actually predictably plan for that kick-off first or second phase, if not straight from the set piece. Now they still go to that stock part of their game. It’s a good strong core and they’ll use it. If the conditions dictate, they will use it. If the nature of the game dictates at any time, they will use it,” he said.
“But they have added a couple of players that have been able to give them that more expansive nature to their game,” added Kiss, citing Willie le Roux, Handre Pollard and Pat Lambie.
“But by virtue of the fact that they will play from deep, and they will play one or two channels wider before they make options, it means you have to be more invested in that frontline of defence which opens up space. [This] then makes a strength of theirs, their kicking, even stronger if you’re not working really hard at getting decent grass cover.”
Elements covered
“So you can imagine where my mind has been as a defence coach, just trying to work the right way to approach that and the systems we’re trying to put in place to make sure that we’ve got all those elements covered.”
Romain Poite is Saturday's referee, and Joe Schmidt missed training yesterday morning as he was obliged to attend an IRB-organised meeting between all the head coaches and referees involved in this November window.
Ruan Pienaar, who was already highly unlikely to feature against Ireland due to the knee ligament injury he suffered in the defeat to the All Blacks in September, has been ruled out of the rest of the Springboks’ tour after developing some swelling on the knee overnight following training on Monday.
South Africa have called up their Toulouse scrum-half Jano Vermaak as a replacement. Vermaak has three caps to his name.
