Ireland captain Johnny Sexton will proceed to let his performances do the speaking after warming up for world champions South Africa with one other record-breaking show.
The 38-year-old surpassed former fly-half rival Ronan O’Gara as his nation’s all-time main scorer by transferring on to 1,090 profession factors throughout Saturday’s emphatic 59-16 win over Tonga.
Sexton final week returned with a bang from nearly six months on the sidelines to leapfrog O’Gara as Ireland’s high factors scorer on the Rugby World Cup, along with changing into the oldest worldwide to put on the inexperienced jersey.
His biggest problem following his long-awaited comeback from harm and suspension undoubtedly lies forward, with the tantalising Paris showdown towards the Springboks prone to determine who tops Pool B.
“The proof of whether I’m in good form will be next Saturday,” stated Sexton, who will retire after the event. “You’ve got to go and do it in the games.
“There’s no point in saying you’re feeling good or whatever. I just take it day by day, make sure I recover well, turn up to training on Monday and Tuesday and try and put the plan in place to take on the reigning world champions.
“They’ve hit a great vein of form and it’s going to be a huge challenge for us but one that we are really excited about and we feel we’re ready for it.”
Sexton claimed the fourth of Ireland’s eight tries on a history-making night in Nantes.
He additionally kicked 4 conversions and a penalty so as to add to the 24-point haul he managed within the curtain-raiser towards Romania earlier than being withdrawn at half-time.
Bundee Aki’s second-half double, in between scores from James Lowe and Rob Herring, helped seal Ireland’s fifteenth successive win after Tadhg Beirne, Caelan Doris and Mack Hansen laid the foundations.
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While Scotland will nonetheless hope to have a say, Ireland and South Africa prepared the ground within the group, with the eventual table-toppers prone to keep away from hosts France and play New Zealand within the quarter-finals.
“Obviously we want to win the group,” stated Sexton. “We want to win every game. That’s pretty clear.
“If you get through the group, it doesn’t matter if you finish first or second, you won’t have an easy game.
“But we’ll be going for the win next week and hopefully the game after (against Scotland) as well.”
Andy Farrell’s resolution to call a robust beginning XV at Stade de la Beaujoire was vindicated by a second successive bonus-point triumph from which his group emerged comparatively unscathed.
The head coach, who was upbeat about alternative prop Finlay Bealham’s head harm evaluation, hopes his gamers can transfer up gear within the capital in six days’ time.
“I would hope we will be better because we’ll certainly need to be when it gets to playing against a fantastic side in South Africa,” he stated.
“But two games under the belt is good for us. Hopefully that rolls on to to another level on the third week.
“This is what World Cups are all about, weeks that are coming against the reigning world champions.
“It doesn’t get any better and one thing’s for sure, you know that the Irish (fans) are going to turn up and enjoy it as well. It’s a fantastic week to look forward to.”
