Casey wary of Tonga danger with World Cup bow at hand

South Africa may loom large on the horizon but Craig Casey knows Ireland can't afford to look beyond Tonga this weekend.

Four years ago, the team, then under head coach Joe Schmidt, opened up their World Cup campaign with a comprehensive victory over Scotland before suffering one of the biggest shocks in the competition’s history, going down to hosts Japan.

Tonga, ranked 15th in the world, have never made it out of the group stages in a World Cup and were among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic restrictions between 2020 and 2021, which curtailed their development.

However, a relaxation of World Rugby’s eligibility rules, which allowed players who hadn’t played internationally for three years to declare for their country of heritage, has seen a swathe of former New Zealand and Australia players join the 'Ikale Tahi cause.

Among them is out-half William Havili, New Zealand-born and a brother of All Blacks centre David, and former Munster centre Malakai Fekitoa.

"Yeah, they’ve got really good players," said Casey, who is likely to feature on Saturday in Nantes (8pm Irish time) having missed out in the win over Romania.

"There are some serious players who have came back to Tonga that have shown their hand in previous World Cups and have a lot of experience behind them.

"We know they’re going to be physical but they have some really good ball players as well, I think Havili at 10 is a very good player, and has a very good boot, and is a very smart player as well.

"He’ll put them around the place nicely and get their big ball carriers into the game. So I know Mala very well from his time at Munster. I know how physical he can be, so we’re expecting that this weekend.

"He’s really kind of quiet guy, humble fella, really good guy