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19th September 2023
02:34pm BST
"My personal view, and I've said this before, is that I was born in South Africa and I can't change that I am South African. "But I played 50 Tests for Ireland and to turn over now and support the Springboks would be, for me, I don't know. I'm an Irishman and that's who I'm going to back on the weekend. Even if they don't play well, that's my team."The World Cup pool stages draw was made three years ago and now sees three of the top-five ranked sides [Ireland, South Africa are 1 and 2, Scotland are 5] in Pool B. If that was not tough enough, the winner and runner-up in the pool will almost certainly be paired off against New Zealand in the last eight. It is a brutal hand to be dealt and Farrell seems determined to take the fight to South Africa by battle testing his main men, ahead of Saturday's game, rather than easing any player back. On the latest House of Rugby, former Ulster and Ireland centre Darren Cave confessed he has often doubted some of the big Andy Farrell selection calls, over the past few years, only - and happily - to be proved wrong. He said:
"When the Tonga selection was done, I could understand why he went with that strength against them, but it did make me question the Romania selection. But the thing that underpinned it was, I have doubted what Andy Farrell has done so many... there is probably no coach that I've ever thought more, 'That's strange that he's done that'. And he has been right, so many times. "Even looking back, the one that stands out for me was that he picked Mack Hansen ahead of Rob Baloucoune, two years ago [for the 2022 Six Nations]. I was like, 'Where has he got this from?' Then you look at that now. He was right, yet again!"Such is the nature of Irish rugby, and the wave it has been riding for the past decade, that there will invariably be two or three decent options for each position. Farrell definitely has his frontliners - Hansen, James Lowe, Tadhg Furlong, Andrew Porter, Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony, and a few others - but he insists many in his squad are capable of plugging in and out when called up. He scoffed at a reporter, on Saturday, when asked if his team selection for the win over Tonga had been vindicated. "That's typical of Farrell," Cave added, "because it's not about him. "People do ask, what's different about him. I wouldn't really know as I've only met him once or twice, but it's one thing that does come across - it's genuinely not about him. It's not about him being vindicated or not. It's about Ireland winning games and him putting them in the best position possible to keep winning games. "So, yet again, he's right and fair play to him."
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