South Africa beat everyone to the punch by having the nerve to turn their substitute bench into virtually a complete auxiliary pack.
Whether they will dare do likewise against Ireland in Paris on September 23 and invite the gods to wreak havoc with their over-exposed backs remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, World Rugby is under fire for allowing it to happen. They could have pre-empted the issue by making it a rule that the eight subs must include a minimum of two specialist backs or, better still, three.

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