Andy Farrell's Ireland will face a unique challenge on Saturday when they face defending world champions South Africa in the Stade de France.
It is just under a year since Ireland claimed a second straight win over the Springboks on Irish soil in Dublin, and the top two teams in the world rankings will face off in a defining game of the Rugby World Cup pool stages.
Much has changed since that November clash, however, none more so than South Africa's innovative - and controversial - 7-1 bench split.
Deployed to great effect against the All Blacks in August's World Cup warmups, the tactic has seen the Boks load their subs bench with seven forwards in order to bring immense power into the second half of games.
The split has become a major talking point of this World Cup, and nullifying its effectiveness will be crucial to any potential Ireland success against South Africa in Paris on Saturday.
Andy Farrell has named his Ireland team to take on the world champions and, at the press conference, made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that he had considered a 7-1 split of his own.
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Andy Farrell makes tongue-in-cheek 7-1 split comment ahead of Ireland v South Africa
Naturally, one of the first questions posed to Andy Farrell was how his Ireland team would tackle the already infamous South Africa bench split on Saturday night.
Farrell said that the split was not something he had considered for his own team, preferring to play to Ireland's strengths - before joking that he had alternatively considered loading the bench with seven backs:
It obviously suits them, they obviously know their squad and what fits for them, and obviously so do we. I think it's great.
I did pose the question to our forwards coaches, we were going to go with a 7-1 split - seven backs and one forward! - but they weren't up for that...
'I did pose the question to our forwards coaches, we was going to go with a 7:1 split - seven backs and one forward. But they weren't up for that"
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell touches on the South African selection gambit at today's team announcement https://t.co/bWIDLIpLWK pic.twitter.com/53Kd5eTqu5— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) September 21, 2023
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The light-hearted response from Farrell came after much speculation as to how Ireland would handle the physicality of the Sprinboks.
Ultimately, there was little change from the norm in Ireland's team selection, with just one change from the starting XV which beat Tonga last Saturday. Jamison Gibson-Park comes in for Conor Murray at scrum-half, while hooker Dan Sheehan returns to the bench having recovered from a pre-tournament injury.
Andy Farrell went on to explain how he and his team would approach the crunch match in Paris. He said that he and his coaching team would focus on making sure Ireland played to their own strengths, and that they had not entertained the possibility of attempting to match South Africa's split:
I think it [7-1] shows exactly where they want to go with their game plan. We do the exact same with our game plan as well.
With a 5-3 split, you cannot cover everything. But you need to be adaptable, and it's something that we have worked hard within our planning over the last few years to be able to do.
I suppose they've done exactly the same with a 7-1 split in mind. I love it, I respect it, I like the fact that they know the squad...it shows that they know their players, know their team, and know in which direction they want to go.
Hopefully they think the same about us as well.
It's set up to be a mouthwatering clash. Kick-off from the Stade de France on Saturday night is at 8pm, with Ireland v South Africa live on RTÉ 2.
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