Veteran halfbacks hold the key

The hugely experienced Irish halfback combination of flyhalf Johnny Sexton and scrumhalf Conor Murray could hold one of the biggest threats for the Springboks in Dublin tonight.

Sexton and Murray have played 66 Tests and 57 Tests respectively and have played in 123 Tests together which is quite a bit more than the entire Bok backline can put together with their 101 caps.

In comparison, Bok scrumhalf Ross Cronje boasts just six caps and flyhalf Elton Jantjies (right) 20 and it is therefore no wonder that coach Allister Coetzee singled out these two star players as key for Ireland.

It could be one of the last opportunities for Jantjies – who needs two points tonight to hit the 200-mark – to prove he belongs in the starting line-up ahead of Handre Pollard, who is on the bench.

“The Irish have a worldclass halfback pair and their set-piece play is extremely good,” said Coetzee.

“They know how to keep the ball and use a good kicking game.”

But there are numerous other battles which could determine the outcome with the big Irish tighthead prop Tadgh Furlong, who might have just 16 caps, but proved to be one of the cornerstones of the British and Irish Lions’ scrum in the recent drawn Test series against the All Blacks in New Zealand.

In this case the Boks have the experience on their side with Beast Mtawarira playing his 96th Test, while on the other side there is Ireland’s Cian Healy with 70 caps against Coenie Oosthuizen who plays in his 30th.

But somehow one sees the big battle of the No 2s to be the pick with Bok menace Malcolm Marx’s stakes rapidly on the rise, but against him there is the imposing figure of the 104-Test veteran, Irish captain Rory Best.

And then all of SA is waiting for the introduction of the two best Bok props on the bench in Steven Kitshoff and Wilco Louw.