BRIAN O’DRISCOLL says he is confident that Ireland captain Johnny Sexton will make a seamless return to the team when the Rugby World Cup gets underway, but cautions that there will be “added nervousness” following his lengthy absence.
Sexton was unavailable for all three of Ireland’s summer warm-up games while he served a ban for his angry outburst towards match officials following Leinster’s Champions Cup final in May. The Ireland out-half expressed his remorse regarding the ban earlier this week as Andy Farrell’s side prepare for their opening World Cup pool clash with Romania on 9 September.
O’Driscoll says that the length of Sexton’s layoff, combined with his age, will certainly be a factor in his return. But the former Ireland skipper also has great faith in his old teammate’s ability to withstand the tests that await him in France.
“I have always been confident with Johnny, “O’Driscoll began.
“One thing he has shown throughout his career is an ability to be able to have a long enough stay away from the game and hit the ground running at Six Nations or international level. Not many players are capable of doing that with no game time but he’s certainly one that’s been capable of doing it. There’s always the added nervousness of someone being 38 years of age and a long layoff.
“It’s nearly six months or thereabouts without playing a high octane international game. There will always be an aspect of nervousness to how his body reacts and then we will continue having nervousness as the competition goes on, around his ability to stay on the field.”
Commenting on how Ireland should manage Johnny’s playing load at the tournament, O’Driscoll suggested a balanced approach to ensure the team’s leader is fully fit for both the pool stage and the knockout phase of the world cup.
“I imagine he’ll start the first game, maybe sit on the bench against Tonga and come on for 20 minutes if needs be and then we’ve got to start him in the biggest games in the pool, against South Africa and against Scotland. It’s a really big ask of Johnny but he’s put himself in the mix to finally try and achieve something with Ireland that no team has done before, and if anyone is capable of doing it at his age, knowing his professionalism, well it is Sexton.
“We’ll all be holding our breath with every impact and every collision that he’s involved in but that hasn’t been any different for the last three or four years.”
There has been some debate about whether or not Ireland should commit their best team to each game in the World Cup, or withhold our strongest selection for the clashes with Romania and Tonga, and possibly South Africa.
“I wouldn’t be a fan. You want to set your stall out and there’s a little bit of, ‘If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.’ You don’t always have to beat them; sometimes other teams can beat them along the way for you. But it’s the message that sends out, that you’re gone in kind of half baked into one with a view to then putting additional pressure on yourself in the final game against a team like Scotland that will know exactly what they might need to do.
“I think it’s dangerous territory to go down and I wouldn’t anticipate that we’re going to see that version of things from Andy Farrell.”
Guinness Ambassador, Brian O’Driscoll was speaking at the launch of the campaign ‘Don’t Jinx It’. This Autumn, Guinness is asking fans to resist the urge to tempt fate. Remember – Think It, Don’t Jinx It.
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