'I love it' - Andy Farrell an admirer of Boks forward-thinking

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell was always going to be asked about South Africa's 7:1 bench split for Saturday night’s World Cup showdown in Paris.

It’s been the talk of the town since Jacques Nienaber named his squad on Tuesday, replicating a split first used when his Springboks side thrashed New Zealand in Twickenham four weeks ago.

On that occasion, at 21-0 up in a game that finished 35-7, the world champions introduced all seven forwards in the 47th minute.

Six of that seven, Ox Nche, Trevor Nyakane, Jean Kleyn, RG Snyman, Marco van Staden and Kwagga Smith, are on the bench for the Stade de France tie, with hooker Deon Fourie the new man in.

More regularly used in the back row, the 36-year-old is the replacement for Bongi Mbonambi, who starts instead of the injured Malcolm Marx.

Nienaber admitted that his selection for the London friendly was made with the Pool B clash against Ireland in mind. Against Romania last week, the South African 23 contained four scrum-halves for their round-two win.

Farrell named an orthodox 5:3 bench split when he revealed his line-up, containing one change to the side that beat Tonga, earlier on Thursday.

"I love it, I respect it," he said of the call.

"I like the fact that they know the squad, bringing four scrum-halves over, and a hooker that’s not really played in the specialist position before.

"It shows that they know their players, their team and which direction they want to go. Hopefully they think the same about us as well

"I think it’s great, it obviously suits them. They know their squad and what fits for them and so do we.

"There are all sorts of permutations. 100% with a 5:3 split, you can’t cover everything. But you need to be adaptable and it’s something we’ve worked hard within our