Ireland head into their final weekend of Pool B Rugby World Cup action knowing a range of different outcomes remain possible, but the topic of match fixing was hot on the agenda at Tuesday's press conference.
At the moment, only Scotland can deny Ireland progressing from the pool in pole position.
One scenario which seems to be living rent-free in the heads of South Africans, is the slim possibility that Ireland and Scotland both progress into the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup.
For this to happen, Andy Farrell's side would need to lose by 21 points, but still score four tries, which would then see Gregor Townsend's side top the group, with Ireland finishing in second.
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South Africa head coach Jacques Nienaber was asked about this possibility earlier this week and pushed back on any suggestions of 'conspiracy' between the Celtic nations.
Speaking on Sunday, Nienaber said:
If I understand, you say they can maybe chat between each other to decide?
Could I believe in a scenario where they will decide 'we want to get this amount of points and the get South Africa out of the way'?
That would probably be match-fixing I would say.
I hope not. Rugby is clean, we wear those t-shirts. Hopefully not, that would be extremely disappointing don't you think?
Catt cools Ireland Rugby collusion talk
It didn't take long for Nienaber's comments from the weekend to come the way of Ireland coach Mike Catt at Tuesday's press conference.
South African-born Catt was quick to pour scorn on the suggestion.
He said:
I don't know what to say about that,
I think he was asked the question, wasn't he? He didn't actually say it was match-fixing, did he?
When it was confirmed to the Ireland assistant coach exactly what had been said, he was quick to put the peculiar comments to bed.
That stuff is just white noise in the background. No, we're not going to go in cahoots with Scotland,
Firstly I'd ask you, would we want Scotland to beat us by 21 points? If you asked any player in this room, any of us, would they want Scotland to beat you by 21 points? No, sorry.
Andy is fully aware of what's going and what needs to happen.
Ultimately, both teams need to win the game. If you do that then you put yourself in a good position. That's what we will try and achieve.
Ireland's terrific form at the Rugby World Cup has certainly ruffled some feathers when it comes to certain southern hemisphere nations, but judging by the start of the mind-games prior to the knockout stages, some would say that Andy Farrell's side could face more of this over the coming weeks.
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