A much-changed matchday 23 will go into battle at Ellis Park today (4pm Irish time). The likes of Keith Earls, Luke Marshall, Mike Ross and Jordi Murphy will sit out the clash having played such crucial roles in the memorable 26-20 win at Newlands.
Only the All Blacks (1996) and the British and Irish Lions (1997) can lay claim to winning a three-Test series on Springbok soil in the professional era. Illustrious company, indeed.
Now, Easterby has challenged the squad’s reinforcements to seal a 2-0 win and secure a place in Irish rugby folklore.
“We haven’t been here for 12 years and we won’t be here again for another 12 years probably,” said Ireland’s forwards coach.
“You can’t buy this type of exposure and opportunity and experience. What they’ve done already in their careers they’ll keep building and keep adding into their little bank of experiences and this is one of those.
“Ellis Park, doesn’t get much bigger, but also you don’t get much more of an opportunity for those guys to lay down a marker themselves and, I think to a man, they’ve all stepped up this week when they found out that they were selected and hopefully we’ll see the type of response from those guys who are coming in to back up what was done by the lads who did start last week.”
Today marks the biggest test in the careers of Quinn Roux and Tadhg Furlong with the South Africa-born lock earning his first international cap while the Leinster tighthead will be making his first start after six appearances from the bench.
The presence of captain Rory Best, Jack McGrath, Devin Toner and Jamie Heaslip ensures the spine of the Irish forward pack remains strong while Iain Henderson and Rhys Ruddock will provide much-needed physicality and power in the backrow.
They certainly owe a big display to the missing men who battled for 57 minutes with only 14 players in the paddock last time out.
“I think the guys last week set a really good standard and they set the platform in scrum and line-out but also by what they did around the park,” said Easterby.
“And that’s the challenge for those guys coming in – for Tadhg, for Quinn, and we’ve shifted Hendy to six and Rhys to seven. We feel that exposure, that opportunity is one that those guys have shown in training to step up to and that’s great, that we have the opportunity after last week to freshen things up a little bit and give guys that exposure.”
There is a sense that Ireland will encounter a very different Springbok beast today. Joe Schmidt’s side, however, should have plenty more to offer particularly with a full complement of players on board again.
The first 23 minutes of last Saturday’s game offered a glimpse into a broader, attacking game-plan from this Irish side before CJ Stander’s red card forced a tactical rethink.
“We didn’t probably play as much as we would have liked,” said the former Scarlets flanker on last’s weekend’s opening Test.
We were restricted in that because of what happened with the changes and adaption we had to make. I was really pleased with the forwards in particular.
“I think we reacted really well to the circumstances but it does take away a little bit of what you want to show and trained for because you don’t expect to play 60 minutes of a game with a man down. But we responded and reacted really well and we showed some stuff and there’s always things in a game whether it’s 15 or 14, that you don’t show.
”We’re happy that we were able to get through the game and respond really well without the ball and score a couple of good tries, but there’s more in us and more that we want to impose ourselves on the game with the ball in hand.
“Hopefully it will allow us to do that if we keep 15 players on the pitch.”
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