Springboks battle looms large in Andy Farrell’s selection for Fiji clash

Andy Farrell’s team selection for Saturday’s Nations Championship game against Fiji at the Aviva Stadium (kick-off 8.10pm) manages to tick plenty of boxes.

Firstly, while there may be seven changes in personnel to the starting XV and a couple of interesting positional switches, it is not as radically overhauled as has often been the case for such a fixture. This is a strong team that shows respect to Fiji.

Yet at the same time, this selection has also been made with next week’s clash against South Africa and next year’s World Cup in mind.

“There’s always one eye on what’s coming,” says Farrell, when specifically asked about the South Africa game. “That’s my job, to have that in mind. But 100 per cent, the whole focus has just been about Fiji and that’s what matters, us improving our performance this week.

“We’ve had another week’s preparation, which has been pretty good. So it’s full steam ahead as far as Fiji is concerned, because we know if you’re not at your best with a team like the quality of Fiji, they can beat you if you’re slightly off.”

Rónan Kelleher replaces the sidelined Dan Sheehan, while Andrew Porter and Tadhg Furlong are retained, which speaks volumes for their fitness and wellbeing. It also points to them being readied for the stiffest scrum examination the world game currently has to offer seven days later.

Evidently, Tadhg Beirne, Ryan Baird and Nick Timoney may also be required to play four Tests in four successive weeks, with Timoney shifting to number eight, the position where he captained Blackrock to a Leinster Schools Senior Cup in 2014.

If Timoney goes well on Saturday in the absence of Caelan Doris, Jack Conan and Sean Jansen, it would cement his standing in the squad.

A refreshed Hugo Keenan, Robbie Henshaw, Dan Sheehan and Joe McCarthy will return next week, with Hansen thus reverting to the wing. But Hansen can also further enhance his value as a viable alternative at fullback, where he marked his sole start in the number 15 shirt against Australia a year ago with a hat-trick.

Farrell and his assistants also like the option of two out-and-out speedsters on the wings, and with good reason. On the two occasions when Robert Baloucoune and the recalled Tommy O’Brien were in harness on the flanks – when the latter was a first-half replacement at Twickenham and when they both started in the Triple Crown decider against Scotland – they scored five tries between them.

Retaining Sam Prendergast is a little surprising, simply because if Ciarán Frawley isn’t going to start this game at 10 following his strong start to life with Connacht, you wonder when he ever will. But Farrell, Johnny Sexton and Andrew Goodman are seemingly doubling down on the younger Prendergast, while also looking for cohesion this month and next year in Australia.

In this, last week felt like the start of the real countdown to next year’s global jamboree, with this week the first of just eight more competitive games before the World Cup warm-ups.

“It’ll be on us before we know it, and we’ve got to make sure that we don’t waste one of those eight opportunities,” says Farrell.

As well as exploring the versatility of players such as Hansen and Timoney, these remaining eight games are also about developing a style of play that we saw more of last week, but there isn’t a bountiful amount of time either.

“No, there isn’t, but we’re a week further on. It’s tough enough, obviously, having four or five days of training sessions before the first game against Argentina, but that’s all banked.

“We’ll be able to see some pictures and learn from that game as well, and the 10 days of preparation that we had going into it, so we should be better this week.”

Starting the majority of the side in five successive games up to and including a quarter-final, as happened at the last World Cup, is not necessarily something Farrell wants to repeat. Improved squad depth, as well as pool games against Portugal and Uruguay, ought to offer scope for rotation.

Even so, putting some players to the test of playing four consecutive games in four weeks is also something Farrell wants to see, given it is logistically difficult to call up late replacements at a World Cup in Australia.

“Of course, with a smaller squad of 33 being at the other end of the world, it’s certainly different for us,” he says. “We’ve never experienced that before, so that’s going to test everyone.

“Seeing who’s robust enough, who can get through this type of period [is important]. And not just that, [but also] go full-on, as in not minding themselves in training and all that. It’s interesting to see over the next 12 months how that unfolds.”

The corresponding Fiji games in the November windows of 2022 and 2024 – a clunky 35-17 win in the first before cruising to a 52-17 win in the latter – provoked sharply different reactions from Farrell, and he explained what he wants to see from his team this time.

“I thought we did some really good stuff [against Argentina]. Our game has joined up really well in parts, from set-piece to counterattack, or from good set-piece delivery to first-phase stuff, or whatever it may be.

“It was joined up, but not all the time. We lost a bit of focus sometimes, and we understand what those standards are now because we’ve seen those pictures, and we need to improve that.”

IRELAND (v Fiji): Mack Hansen (Connacht); Robert Baloucoune (Ulster), Jamie Osborne (Leinster), Bundee Aki (Connacht), Tommy O’Brien (Leinster); Sam Prendergast (Leinster), Jamison Gibson-Park (Leinster); Andrew Porter (Leinster), Rónan Kelleher (Leinster), Tadhg Furlong (Leinster); James Ryan (Leinster), Tadhg Beirne (Munster)(capt); Ryan Baird (Leinster), Josh van der Flier (Leinster), Nick Timoney (Ulster).

Replacements: Tom Stewart (Ulster), Tom O’Toole (Ulster), Sam Illo (Connacht), Darragh Murray (Connacht), James McNabney (Ulster), Craig Casey (Munster), Ciarán Frawley (Connacht), Stuart McCloskey (Ulster).