Johnny Sexton impressed by coach Mike Catt’s ‘contagious energy’

If Ireland’s attack is half as exciting as the enthusiasm greeting its new coach, then it will not just be Johnny Sexton purring over the results.

The departure of head coach, Joe Schmidt, in November, also left a vacancy for someone to steer Ireland’s offensive gameplan and successor, Andy Farrell, reconnected with former fellow England assistant, Mike Catt.

There had been just one training session ahead of this week’s training camp in Portugal, but Catt’s impact has already generated excitement.

Captain Sexton has been bowled over by the buzz. “The passion he has for the game, you can’t but get excited being around him,” Sexton said. “He called over to meet me and I told my wife I would probably be 20 minutes or a half-hour.

Two hours later, she had to give me a little sneaky text to say, ‘your dinner is ready, can you tell Mike to leave?’

“He loves the game and loves to talk about it. He’s just excited and passionate about bringing our attack forward and he’s got some good ideas. He has a contagious energy,” Sexton said.

Farrell, preparing for his first game as head coach on Saturday, at home to Scotland, has also caught the bug.”He’s the man that you want to progress your ideas, but also his ideas, into the team and how you want them to be, and is that person going to fit with the personnel that you’ve got?

“He’s an ideas man, who gets excited about the attacking game of rugby and I need that; I need to be challenged along the way. I want people throwing ideas at me and giving me a few headaches along the way. I’ll sift through all those and make decisions,” Farrell said.