Ireland need Lions to tame Springboks

IRELAND will look to their nine Lions for inspiration against a resurgent South Africa in Dublin. Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best, Iain Henderson, Peter O’Mahony, Sean O’Brien, CJ Stander, Conor Murray, Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw all toured New Zealand in the summer. O’Mahony captained the British and Irish Lions in the opening Test loss at Eden Park and Sexton, O’Brien and Murray had big roles in the drawn series. Irish captain Best paid tribute to their qualities before tonight’s Aviva Stadium clash, saying: ‘Peter, Johnny, CJ, Seanie, Conor — look at that spine in the middle of your team, they’ve captained at different levels. I’ll lean on them for help. It’s vital you don’t do it all yourself at this level. ‘It’s a good group to captain because everyone wants to take responsibility.’ Best will captain Ireland for this season then head coach Joe Schmidt will reassess his World Cup 2019 plans next summer. Schmidt told Best in the off-season he wanted the Ulster hooker to lead Ireland for this campaign, and then review the situation. The 104-cap stalwart will be 37 by the time the 2019 World Cup starts and only John Hayes has been capped for Ireland at that age. Best revealed his pride at being reassigned the captaincy for another year, insisting taskmaster boss Schmidt would not have flinched at making a change now. ‘If Joe had wanted to make a change of captain, he would have done it,’ said Best, who has shaken off a hamstring problem. ‘But he said early enough in one of the summer camps that as long as I was happy to continue, I’d be captain again, and then we’d reassess at the end of the season, on where we were, what’s going on and how I felt. ‘And I suppose that’s something for the end of the season. ‘But it was nice to be asked again. When you’re in that position you never like to assume anything, so it was good when Joe said they would like me to do it again for the season. ‘It gave me the confidence that he liked what I was doing, that he felt I was doing a good job.’ Auckland-born centre Bundee Aki makes his Test debut for Ireland, qualifying via the three-year residency rule. South Africa make three changes to the XV who lost 25-24 to the All Blacks last month, restoring Damian de Allende, Tendai Mtawarira and Coenie Oosthuizen.