Racing to decide if Sexton is required

Word is expected today on whether Jonathan Sexton will be reeled back to France to play his 14th club game of the season this weekend or if the Irish out-half is finally afforded some desperately-needed downtime before the November internationals.

Racing Metro 92 are in action at Biarritz’s Stade Olympiques Yves-Du-Manoir on Saturday and, withinjury concerns over a number of out-halves and scrum-halves, the fear is Sexton will be whisked away from Ireland camp in Kildare.

The expectation is Sexton will need to be rested for the November 9 meeting with Samoa at the Aviva Stadium if he is indeed required by his club, whereas a badly-needed weekend off would leave him first in line to start Joe Schmidt’s first game in charge. Conor Murray is favoured to be one of the 15 lining out on Saturday week after the Munster scrum-half appeared in front of an independent RaboDirect Pro12 disciplinary committee in Cardiff yesterday.

Murray had been cited by Glasgow for an alleged act of foul play towards Niko Matawalu — “striking an opponent, contrary to Law 10.4(a)” — and that was upheld by the committee chaired by Roger Morris of Wales. However, they also found “the act did not merit classification as a red card offence and imposed no sanction”.

Nikola Matawalu, the Glasgow Warriors scrum-half cited for biting Donncha O’Callaghan, had his case dismissed after a hearing involving the same committee that lasted three-and-a-half hours. They decided Matawalu’s teeth had come into contact with O’Callaghan’s arm “on the balance of probabilities” and that it had caused injury, but that this contact had been accidental.

Meanwhile, Ireland return to training today after yesterday’s rest day.

Keith Earls, Cian Healy and Paul O’Connell have all been ruled out of training for the week but updates are expected on Declan Fitzpatrick (calf), Rory Best (ankle), Robbie Henshaw (hip flexor), Sean O’Brien (ankle) and Mike Ross (hamstring).