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Rugby Union News: Ireland Confident of Levelling Series Against South Africa
As Ireland prepare to face the world champion Springboks in the series finale on Saturday, assistant coach Simon Easterby has expressed a positive outlook on the squad’s fitness and readiness for the crucial rematch.
Despite losing hooker Dan Sheehan and scrumhalf Craig Casey in the opening Test defeat, the rest of Andy Farrell’s 35-man squad is available and trained fully on Wednesday. This includes the arrival of Connacht’s Dave Heffernan and uncapped Ulster back Nathan Doak, who were brought in to replace the injured pair.
While prop Andrew Porter required treatment on a cut hand and several other players, including Jamie Osborne, Bundee Aki, James Lowe and Robbie Henshaw, suffered knocks in the 27-20 loss in Pretoria, Easterby confirmed that “everyone trained today” and are ready to go for the series decider in Durban.
“We grew massively into the game, and we finished strongly. We will take a lot of confidence from that,” he said.
Recognizing the quality of the Springboks, Easterby stressed the need to limit the space and opportunities afforded to the world champions, who have named an unchanged 23-man squad for the second Test.
“You can’t give a side like South Africa the type of space that we allowed because they have too many quality players to put you under pressure and take advantage of that space,” he added.
With the series poised at 1-0 to the Springboks, Ireland will be determined to level the scores and secure a crucial victory against the reigning world champions this Saturday in Durban.
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