Murphy: Sexton will bounce back

JONATHAN SEXTON’S wayward kicking display against the USA last Sunday has been dismissed as a blip by the man who works on that aspect of his game on a weekly basis.

Leinster skills and kicking coach Richie Murphy spoke on the phone yesterday with the Ireland out-half who missed four from six efforts on goal in the pool opener in New Plymouth before being replaced by Ronan O’Gara.

TV stills of his place-kicking were examined in detail after the game with some analysts claiming the Leinster man had altered his style of striking the ball but Murphy was unable to spot any such alterations.

He insisted: “There is no change in Johnny’s style. He wasn’t kicking well, I believe the conditions were extremely hard. He was disappointed but there is no intentional change in kicking style or technique.”

He added: “One small error and all of a sudden the ball moves all over the place. Even Ronan’s first kick, that ended up quite a long way away from the posts as well. Jonny will be fine and do well in the rest of the World Cup. It was just one of those days.”

Sexton isn’t the only kicker to have struggled with kicking in the World Cup far eight games in. Dan Carter, Jonny Wilkinson and Argentinians Martin Rodriguez and Felipe Contepomi all endured difficulties.

Meanwhile, Leinster will be without Sexton’s recently-signed cover Mat Berquist for up to four months after it was confirmed that the New Zealander sustained a fractured patella in the win over the Dragons at the RDS last Friday.

That leaves the inexperienced Ian Madigan and uncapped Academy player Noel Reid as the only specialist out-halves ahead of Saturday’s home game, against Glasgow Warriors, although Isa Nacewa can slot in at 10 if required.

Meanwhile Mike Sherry, Denis Hurley and BJ Botha returned to full training for Munster this week and could feature in the province’s RaboDirect Pro12 game against Scarlets on Saturday night (Musgrave Park kick-off 7.45pm).

Ian Nagle (shoulder) and Darragh Hurley (achilles) have both resumed training but Peter Borlase (achilles) is looking at a five-week layoff. Troy Smith undergoes cruciate surgery tomorrow while Tomás O’Leary will see a specialist this week and have his injured back assessed.