WHEN ALL IS said and done, a fit and in-form Jonathan Sexton will be a crucial factor if Ireland are to break through the quarter-final hurdle at the World Cup.
Even being the reigning world player of the year does not fully explain Sexton’s importance to this Ireland team. He is the on-field attack coach, cracking the whip, pulling the strings and steering his side around the park.
For head coach Joe Schmidt, Sexton has been the key cog in every success since he left Clermont to settle in Ireland in 2010.
And although there has a concerted IRFU effort to move players around provinces and build depth after the chief playmaker was among the injuries which scuppered Ireland’s 2015 quarter-final, the Leinster 10′s importance has grown for Schmidt rather than be diminished by the rise of Joey Carbery, Jack Carty or Ross Byrne as understudies.
Schmidt said in the wake of the win over Russia that the plan is for Sexton to get more match fitness by playing an hour in the must-win pool match against Samoa next weekend. All Irish fingers will be crossed and hoping he can come through unscathed for a potential last-eight clash with either New Zealand or South Africa.
“He’s someone I get so excited to be playing with,” says Chris Farrell.
Ireland with Sexton at the helm always promise to be a different, steadier, beast than how they have fared without him.
“It comes from his experience,” adds the centre who missed the win over Russia due to concussion.
“He sees things unfold, he has seen things happen before. We talk about getting into the ‘mind gym’ and seeing things happen before they happen, or being able to see things as early as possible as they unfold — because we’ve seen it in our head before or we’ve seen the pictures before, whether that be in real life or just in the ‘mind gym.’
But for him, he has played so much rugby at the highest standard at international level, he’d have seen a lot of things happen and he’s able to see things earlier than most.”
Though Sexton captained Ireland from the start for the first time on Thursday, he has long been a central figure in the leadership group. And the vice-captain leads by deed as well as his visible on-field gesticulation, often inviting punishing tackles in order to slip a team-mate through a gap.
“He really is someone who leads from the front. He’s someone I get so excited to be playing with, he gives you that little bit of space and time and he’s so consistent with what he does that you know what you’re getting every single time.
“He’s a real leader and I think he showed that last night as well.
“Even during the week, all the little micro chats that he’d be having – not just with the same players over and over again, but he goes and seeks the players that he needs to – and he gets what he wants out of them.
“He’s got so much experience and so much knowledge of the game that you’ve got to take on board everything that he says, because when he says something you tend to look at it or reflect on what he said, or look at a bit of video and see what he’s talking about (and think), ‘He’s dead right there’.
“More often than not, he’s really accurate in what he says to you and he can make you a better player just from talking to him.”
But as this World Cup has shown already, having his influence on the field is infinitely more valuable than his words of encouragement off it.
Murray Kinsella joins Sean Farrell and Gavan Casey from Japan to give his blunt assessment of Ireland’s performance against Russia
