Sexton starts as Schmidt ‘really confident’

RBS 6 NATIONS:

Joe Schmidt has opted for continuity as Ireland face Italy in their penultimate Six Nations encounter tomorrow, with the enforced replacement of the injured Peter O’Mahony by Iain Henderson the only alteration to his starting XV.

Which means, of course, that among those lining up for the anthems at Aviva Stadium tomorrow will be out-half Jonathan Sexton, who will wear a strap on the thumb he injured against England two weeks ago. Not a bad result, all told, given the medical bulletin that emanated from Racing Metro last week painted an apocalyptic picture of a return date in May.

Schmidt put the different diagnoses down to a failure of communication between these shores and Paris, where the Top 14 is in temporary lay-off.

“He sprained his thumb,” the Ireland head coach explained. “There is nothing that is untoward about it. He’ll strap it up, just like players strap their ankles, strap their shoulders, strap things that give them support. But apart from that, he’s good to go.

“Injuries have to be managed and one of the things that happens is that if you sprain something, you get a little bit of internal bleeding and that obviously affects the movement in the joint, creates pain in the joint.

“Once that inflammation and pain subsides and the bruising goes, then the joint is pretty much functional and away you go.”

Sexton was passed fit by a hand specialist last Monday but O’Mahony must sit tight. The Munster flanker has succumbed to hamstring and shoulder injuries suffered in London and did not train fully yesterday but the signals are that he will be ready to face France. O’Mahony’s absence lowers the contingent in the matchday squad to just two — compared to 26 from Leinster — not that it is something O’Connell has a problem with.

“They’ve won trophies year on year,” he said. “They dominated Europe and obviously have done very well in the Rabo as well, so I don’t think we can argue with it.”

Schmidt and captain Paul O’Connell were effusive in their praise for Henderson, his replacement from Ulster, who will make a first start in the Six Nations while also covering for the captain and Devin Toner, with no specialist lock being chosen on the bench. Risky?

“We feel really confident,” said Schmidt. “Paul’s in great shape and is going to go the distance, probably. Dev is in great form and Iain Henderson has probably played more second row than back-row for Ulster and he is pretty comfortable there. So, that’s the normal cover that you would have for the second row.

“It’s just your second row replacement is starting at No.6. There is a degree of risk two of the three might get hurt, but we finished the last 20 minutes of the Wales game with Peter O’Mahony in the second row. Rhys Ruddock knows all of the roles in the second row and is ready to step in.”

Ruddock’s elevation from 24th man is one of only two changes to the bench, with Eoin Reddan replacing Isaac Boss, while Tommy Bowe is primed as emergency cover for Paris, having trained in Kildare this week for the first time since November.

Little in the way of change, then, as the tournament funnels towards its climax. Not just in personnel but approach too. Having fallen just three points short against England, tweaks have been the order of the day since.

“Yeah, we would have rather done it two weeks ago, but hopefully we’re a little more aware of particular roles that have to happen,” said Schmidt. “There was a bit of frustration that we didn’t get reward. Sometimes we didn’t deserve to get the reward because we weren’t good enough at what we were doing, particularly inside the 22.

“When you get into... those pressure areas of the game, you want to come away with something. Whether you put pressure on through a maul, through the hands or a really powerful, solid scrum, there is a number of ways you can do it and we have to be really good at different aspects of the game.”