Sexton stands up to scrutiny

First things first.

Jonathan Sexton is fit to go this Saturday.

The minor injury that prompted Paddy Wallace’s late scramble to Paris as emergency cover last Friday week is, like the fiasco that followed in Saint-Denis, in the past, but there are some niggles the Leinster out-half just can’t leave behind.

Chief among them are the same old questions vis-a-vis his career in a green shirt and it was no surprise to see a faint, resigned smile break from his lips when Ronan O’Gara’s name got its first mention at yesterday’s press conference.

That particular question wasn’t even aimed at him, manager Mick Kearney fielded that one, but Sexton is well versed in how these things work and, sure enough, the spotlight wasn’t long turning towards his side of the top table.

How does being replaced so often affect his confidence? Would he like more of a chance at closing games out? Has there been too much made of his penalty miss and its significance in the defeat against Wales with six minutes to go in the opening game? He’s heard them all before. Apart from that last one.

That one took him a bit by surprise.

“I wasn’t aware it was an issue,” he said. “We didn’t turn the ball over after that because I went for a kick at goal. We took a wrong decision. We didn’t look after the breakdown. We turned it over. We paid the price.”

It’s a fair point and yet the question was indicative of the microscope that is applied to the player whenever he swaps the club game for its international counterpart and the scrutiny shows no sign of abating.

Though never less than polite when faced with a microphone, there was an air of irritability about him as the minutes dragged on and the focus remained the same and he will be more thankful than most when Saturday dawns and actions regain precedence from words.

It has, he admitted, been a “weird” interlude since that first fixture against Warren Gatland’s visitors with Ireland’s players forced into a quasi-competitive run-out in Kildare last week in lieu of the full-on bruiser that had been expected against the French.

It will be interesting to see who starts at ten when Declan Kidney & Co return to continental Europe on Sunday week given the ongoing musical chairs in that department but the expectation is that the original Paris XV will line out against Italy.

The arrival of the Azzurri this weekend does at least lend further weight to Kidney’s oft-repeated observation that Ireland are almost criminally fortunate to have two tens of the calibre of Sexton and Ronan O’Gara at their disposal.

Never less than brutally physical and equally efficient up front, the Italians have been cursed by their inability to uncover half-backs of sufficient quality although new coach Jacques Brunel has a reputation of being able to do big things with small resources.

“They’ve been playing [Kris] Burton and I thought he was going okay. They took him off against England when they were going okay and it probably cost them. I would expect him to play.

“I’ve played against him with Leinster before against Treviso and he’s a good player. He is a threat at certain things. You’ve got to keep your discipline and put a lot of pressure on him when he goes for drop goals.”

The absence of injured prop Martin Castrogiovanni only heightens the belief that Ireland can shunt their Six Nations campaign back onto the rails against an opponent that has never been their better in this competition.

Not that Ireland’s form lends itself to over-confidence.

“There’s a lot of areas we need to improve upon. The breakdown, including the backs. At certain times in the game, we need to be a little more clever at what we’re doing. We played the majority of the Welsh game off turnover ball.

“Any time we got the ball was after a prolonged period of them having it and that’s tough. I don’t think we had too many set-pieces in the game. We’re judging this Irish team after one game.

“That’s our first game of the championship. We were a couple of minutes away from winning it. We do have a lot of things to work on but that’s expected. It’s coming together and we’ve only been together for one game.”