Entering match week four of the Rugby World Cup, Robbie Henshaw is feeling fully charged and refreshed after a ‘nice and chilled’ few days in Paris during the Ireland’s squad down time.

The picture has changed in Pool B since Ireland’s 13-10 win over reigning champions South Africa. The Springboks are top of the table on 15 points following their 49-18 defeat of Tonga, with Scotland, as expected, coming right back into contention with back-to-back bonus point victories.

Unbeaten Ireland still have their destiny very much in their own hands, sitting on 14 points with the Scots on 10, but it does mean that Saturday night’s Celtic derby at the Stade de France is effectively a shootout for the quarter-finals.

Ireland have dominated this fixture in recent seasons with eight straight wins, and have won twelve of the last 13 meetings. However, you write off a Scottish team at your peril, and Henshaw knows exactly the type of challenge they will pose.

“Every time we play Scotland we know they’re going to come for us,” he said, speaking at the team base in Tours. “Now we can see what it means to them and what they want to chase, and what we want to chase as well in terms of getting those four (pool) wins.

“They’re going to come and have a go like they always do, through Finn Russell and getting the ball to the width. They’ll have a plan and we’ll just need to make sure we’re rock solid and we attack it.”

Henshaw got another half-an-hour of game-time under his belt against South Africa, coming on during Garry Ringrose’s first half HIA and then as a permanent replacement just past the hour mark.

The Athlone man has played in four of Ireland’s last five matches, including starts against Italy and Samoa in the lead up to the World Cup. If he gets an opportunity to feature this weekend, he readily accepts that he has to make the most of it given the form of the other centres.

Bundee (Aki) has been brilliant. His body is in great shape, he is flying fit, as has Garry. The lads’ performances have been consistent.

“Bundee has been flying in terms of getting tries. He’s been letting us know he’s near the top of the try scorers’ list (with four tries so far), which we’ve been having a laugh about!

“They’ve been outstanding. Whenever I get a chance to come in, it’s making sure I put my best foot forward and whenever I come off the bench, put in a good performance.”

As well as Henshaw, Ulster’s Stuart McCloskey, who is in buoyant mood after the birth of his second son, is pressing to be involved and make his World Cup debut, as is the versatile Jimmy O’Brien, who played at centre against the ‘Boks last November.

Ireland’s strength in depth in midfield – and clean bill of health – is a huge asset at this stage of the tournament, especially if the starting pair for Saturday continue to produce the sort of form that Aki and Ringrose have across the opening three rounds.

“There’s always in the past – Six Nations, Novembers – there’s always been one of us (centres) in or out due to injury or whatever,” acknowledged Henshaw, who scored his eighth Test try against Scotland in March 2021.

“Hopefully we can keep us all fit. But the quality we have, we’ve great strength in depth in those positions, even the likes of ‘Earlsie’ (Keith Earls) being able to come in at 13 and Jimmy, the depth we have here is key for playing in a World Cup because anything can happen.”

The 30-year-old Leinster star admitted it was ‘all hands on deck’ when he was initially sprung from the bench against South Africa. It was his chop tackle on Pieter-Steph du Toit that allowed James Lowe to get in for a turnover at a crucial stage.

Keeping Jacques Nienaber’s men to just one try – and eight points in all – was a huge factor in the overall outcome. That was also the case when Ireland beat Scotland in the 2022 and 2023 Six Nations, winning 26-5 in Dublin and 22-7 in Edinburgh respectively.

As things stand, Ireland have the third best defensive record across the pools, conceding 32 points so far compared to host nation France’s 25 and England’s 22. Maintaining those standards will be vital against Scotland in such a high-stakes encounter.

“We had a good look at what we did against South Africa. I think our defence, we showed some great pictures in defence but we know we can go (up) another level,” insisted Henshaw.

“Definitely in attack, we took some steps forward but we left some opportunities out there as well. Looking at everything from our set-piece lineout, how can we get better there? In the first few moments we missed a few lineouts and that let South Africa off the hook a bit.

“Definitely we’ll break down bits like that and make sure we learn from it and we grow.”

The Boks’ 31-point margin of victory ­– allied to a bonus point for scoring four tries – means that for Scotland and Ireland to go through at the Boks’ expense, the former needs to beat the latter by 21 points while Ireland score four tries in defeat.

In that scenario all three teams would have 15 log points; Scotland would progress with the best points difference, while Ireland would oust the Boks by virtue of having won the head-to-head match.

As Scotland have lost their last seven matches against their celtic rivals it is preposterous to think that they might now achieve such a result after the Boks eventually took care of business by claiming the bonus point in the 49th minute as they racked up seven tries in total.

But it was not easy in front of a Tonga-favouring crowd of 60 387. The ghosts of Lens haunted the opening quarter as Tonga dominated possession to recall the nail-biting affair of the 2007 tournament when the Boks escaped by the skin of their teeth with a 30-25 victory.

The Pacific Islanders opened the scoring with a penalty by flyhalf William Havili in the third minute after a shaky start by the Boks who missed the kick off to set an unhappy tone.

Andre Esterhuizen on the attack.

The Boks hit back in the fifth minute from their only visit to the Tongan 22 in the opening quarter, when the ever alert scrumhalf Cobus Reinach took a quick tap at a five-metre penalty and ran in in the corner.

Their next visit was only 15 minutes later after repeated Tongan attacks from a succession of penalties had been repulsed. Centre Andre Esterhuizen made one of several tackle busting runs to give field position but a try for centre Canan Moodie owed much to good fortune. Handre Pollard’s pass bounced forward off the shoulder of prop Vincent Koch for Moodie to collect the loose ball and elegantly swerve past the last line of defence.

The Boks were now beginning to assert a measure of control and Deon Fourie claimed a second Springbok try at the back of a driven maul as the Tongan pack began to falter. Pollard converted all three – two from wide out on the right – to give the Boks a 21-3 lead before Tonga were let back into the game.

A penalty for offside as a Tongan attack was broken up by offensive defence on halfway was turned into a lineout five metres out and after half a dozen phases 151kg prop Ben Tameifuna flopped over the line from barely a metre.

The more dynamic Jesse Kriel – on as a replacement for wing Makazole Mapimpi following a head clash in which Tongan scrumhalf Augustine Pulu was lucky to escape a yellow card – drove in from close range after a succession of drives had exhausted Tonga’s defence.

Willie le Roux goes over for a try in his 90th Test.

Tongan right wing Fini Inese crossed in the corner from a long looping pass after repeated attempts to beat down the front door from more drives had failed.

The Boks responded in the left hand corner through Willie le Roux from Moodie’s pass after Manie Libbok – on for Pollard – had dislodged the ball in a tackle as Tonga tried to run out of defence.

Hooker replacement Marco van Staden added the sixth in similar style as the match entered the final quarter and the Boks three times looked on the verge of claiming a seventh – once through Esterhuizen and twice through wing Grant Williams – before a break out from their own half by replacement flyhalf Patrick Pellegrini ended in a third for Tonga.

The seventh finally arrived in the final minute when Kwagga Smith’s all action play was rewarded with a try under the cross bar. Libbok landed his third conversion from three attempts to round off a challenging but ultimately successful night.

Scorers:

Springboks 49 (21) – Tries: Cobus Reinach, Canan Moodie, Deon Fourie, Jesse Kriel, Willie le Roux, Marco van Staden, Kwagga Smith. Conversions: Handre Pollard (4), Manie Libbok (3)

Tonga 18 (8) – Tries: Ben Tameifuna, Fine Inisi, Patrick Pellegrini. Penalty goal: William Havili.

Cane, who came off the bench for his first appearance in the tournament after recovering from a back injury, said there was always the memory of their loss to France in their opening game to keep them on the straight and narrow.

But, he said, he felt like the side was ‘building nicely’ with a shorter week before they play Uruguay on Friday (NZT).

“There will absolutely be areas where we will pat ourselves on the back and we executed things well [against Italy], but knowing our coaches, they will be looking through things with a fine tooth comb and highlight things that we may have done or probably won’t get away with against better teams.”

Cane said sitting on the sideline through the first three games had been frustrating, especially the tournament opener against France.

“I’d been looking forward to that game for a long time.

“Back troubles can kind of pop up out of nowhere sometimes and it can be quite frustrating. Sometimes they can come right quickly and other times they can linger and cause issues. Unfortunately for me, it was just lingering and as I would increase my training load it would flare up a little bit again. Never really badly but enough to be frustrating.”

“The night before, we were watching the Samoa game, and I just thought ‘Man, I can’t wait to get out there’. The excitement levels were a wee bit higher than normal. [There’s] Nothing like having a few games off to make you appreciate how good it is out there.

“To come through unscathed is a bonus as well.”

Hooker Dane Coles scored two tries after coming on as a substitute and said, “It’s always good to play with a bit of a free spirit and have run, have a jam and play what we see. You can always take a lot of confidence out of that.

“There will be a bit of a spring in the step with the lads, but this has been two weeks of preparation. We put a lot of hard work in.

“It was nice to score a meat pie [try] down the sideline, I was pretty stoked.”

Coles said the team had celebrated with his long-time teammate lock Sam Whitelock for his achievement in reaching 149 Test caps, the most by an All Black.

“Bloody old mate, didn’t smile all week. Nah, it was good. He’s not one for the spotlight, so he was in his own little world during the week. Even on the bench, I was trying to get a laugh out of him, but not much was going on.

“We did a special presentation in the sheds with him. I actually had a whisky. I’m not a big spirit drinker; I don’t really drink, but I said, ‘Mate, I’ll have a drink with you’.

“We just sat down with a few lads and tried to finish these whiskies. It was good. He’s a good man, and we’re stoked for him.

“He was in the gym this morning on the watty (watt bike) and straight back in.”