Tonga task makes for interesting selection calls for Andy Farrell

Romania are done and dusted with the not so mighty Oaks felled with a sharp axe and minimum fuss.

All eyes turn to Tonga and Saturday's meeting in Nantes' Stade de Beaujiore.

Ireland's coaches repeat the 'week by week’ mantra but they’ll long have had a plan laid out when it comes to managing the minutes building towards Saturday week’s Pool B blockbuster with South Africa.

But Tonga, ranked 15th in the world, come first and aside from the non-negotiable need for five match points, and the hope that everyone emerges injury-free, Andy Farrell will want to get game time into some lightly run horses.

After recovering from a hamstring issue, Rónan Kelleher played 30 minutes in Saturday's 82-8 win, while first-choice hooker Dan Sheehan has been out of action since spraining foot ligaments against England over three weeks ago.

While Sheehan’s injury was downplayed after some concern, if all is as well as reported, Farrell would surely like to see him running freely in the heat of battle.

South Africa’s power game necessitates Ireland getting the maximum effort from the starting hooker and the replacement for the 20 or 30 minutes he’ll be required.

Losing a hooker early in that fight would spell disaster; Farrell knows exactly what Rob Herring brings to the party so Sheehan should see some action against the 'Ikale Tahi.

Finlay Bealham didn’t feature against Romania and is likely to come in for the match in Nantes, while Farrell will also want to test out Dave Kilcoyne, who hasn’t played since the Italy warm-up over a month ago.

Iain Henderson has come off the bench in the last two games so a start is overdue, while Joe McCarthy has plenty of energy to burn and would benefit from a good run-out with the experienced Ulster man by his