Ireland unlikely to appeal against CJ Stander's ban

Ireland skills and kicking coach Richie Murphy stated that the team management is considering not to appeal against CJ Stander's one-week ban ahead of the second Test against South Africa in Johannesburg.

The Ireland flanker was handed a one-week ban following a two-day disciplinary hearing for his airborne collision on Springboks fly-half Pat Lambie in the opening game in Cape Town. Lambie, who was forced off the field with a concussion, was ruled out of the second Test as well.

The Irish camp was given a time of 48 hours to appeal against the judgement made by the disciplinary officer Terry Willis' but Murphy believes the timeline was so tight for the team management to make a call.

Revealing that Stander has not been training with the squad for the Johannesburg game, the former Leinster out-half is confident of the replacement filling in the void created by the Munster back-row.

"Unfortunately we can't make that decision yet because we haven't received the notification, the report, at the moment," Murphy said when asked if Ireland would appeal the ban.

"We're in a situation where we're halfway through the training week already. CJ obviously hasn't been training with the team so it's probably a situation where it's probably a little bit too late already.

"We're disappointed. We're disappointed in the verdict. It's one of those things where a player's got injured on the pitch and we're disappointed for that as well, that was never the intention from CJ.

"I suppose the process that he's gone through over the last three days has just taken forever. It's been very slow. So, that's something that's probably gone against CJ at this stage.

"CJ will be missed but with that it gives opportunities to other guys like Rhys Ruddock who has had a really good season this year. We've got Rhys there who can step into this shoes, if needed."

Ireland registered their first win against the Springboks in South Africa in Cape Town, despite being one-man down for most part of the game.

Murphy hopes to have all the 15 players intact in the Johannesburg Test as they bid to complete a historic series victory against the Springboks.

"It is a totally different situation," he said.

"At times we were a little bit lucky at the weekend. South Africa knocked one or two balls on, got stripped once or twice in our 22 and we'd acknowledge that.

"Come Saturday, it will probably be a very different game and it's very hard to compare 14 to 15. On the day we had 14 men and managed to get the job done.

"I think we need to park that now and move on to this week's challenge in Johannesburg, which will be completely different to last weekend."