Throughout his tenure as Ireland boss, Farrell has been wary of handing out cheap caps, and while he is likely to dip into his wider squad next weekend, the team is set to be back-boned by a strong, experienced core against a dangerous Fijian outfit.

For the third game running, Ireland appear to have a largely fit squad to choose from, although Tom O’Toole is still recovering from the head injury he suffered during the defeat to New Zealand.

The tighthead missed Friday night’s nervy 22-19 win over Argentina, which paved the way for Thomas Clarkson (24) to make his international debut off the bench. Outhalf Sam Prendergast (21) also earned his first cap.

Ulster’s versatile back-row Cormac Izuchukwu (24) will hope to do the same against Fiji, but Farrell was quick to downplay expectations that there would be wholesale changes.

“We’ll see how the bodies fare up, but we do need to have a think about how we roll on because Fiji are unbelievably dangerous, as we saw last week against Wales,” Farrell said.

​“At the same time, so are Australia. Four games on the bounce, we’ve got to manage that realistically.

“We need to pick a side that’s going to perform and what you don’t just do is give everyone a game that’s been unfortunate not to play so far.

“If you’re trying to work out how lads are going to cope at international level, you need to put good people around them to be able to judge them in the right manner, so there’s a balance there.”

Having drawn level with Brian O’Driscoll as the country’s most capped player (133), Cian Healy is in line to break the record next weekend.

The 37-year-old veteran loosehead may be given the honour of leading out Ireland from the start, especially given Farrell’s tendency to mark significant milestones with due recognition.

Farrell was pleased with the impact of his bench on Friday, which included a 14-minute cameo from Healy, as the replacements helped Ireland squeeze over the line.

“I thought it was a big old task for Tom Clarkson coming on, especially when it’s a game of collision-winning and they’re going to test you through the forwards,” Farrell maintained. “They’re a good scrummaging pack and I thought he did really well.

“I thought it was a tough one for Sam to manage his way through, but again, you give them that type of exposure and see what they’re about. Both of them did really well.

“I think they were causing us a little bit of trouble [in the scrum], whether it was legal or not, through the tighthead and Cian did well to come on for his record-breaking cap there, which was great.

Andy Farrell is wary of making changes against Fiji and Australia.

“Ryan Baird obviously got injured. I thought Jamie Osborne was immense when he came on. He has really stepped up, certainly this season for Leinster in the games we’ve seen. I thought the bench did a really good job.”

As for the worrying lengthy scoreless spell (48 minutes), Farrell praised Felipe Contepomi’s ever-improving Pumas, while he also acknowledged his side’s big defensive set just before the break, which proved crucial.

“Look at the field position they had probably through lack of discipline giving them access and to be fair to Argentina, the access that they’ve had over the last six months in the opposition 22, their conversion rate has been outstanding, one of the best in world rugby,” Farrell added.

“So how we kept them out is testament to us being able to win that game. They were creeping and getting there, but at the same time we were standing tall and staying in the fight.

​“It looked like we were composed enough to see the pictures because obviously their plan in and around there was to shorten us up in the forwards, and I thought they swept in pretty well in general phase anyway with the backs. We were covering all those bases.”

Meanwhile, Ireland captain Caelan Doris echoed his head coach’s sentiments in terms of the defensive grit that his side showed to cling on to victory.

“It’s pleasing that we were on the right side of the result, definitely,” the No 8 said. “The nature of lads fronting up when they took us on around the fringes probably a little more than we expected.

“In the first half, they probably won a lot of those collisions and it was probably better in the second half, but the fight from lads staying in, a double effort trying to make a mess of the breakdown, I think that was what got the ball back for us at the end and allowed us to get the win.”