General Johnny’s homecoming massive boost for Schmidt’s World Cup campaign

Could Joe Schmidt have asked for a better start to the new rugby season than the firm indications his on-field general, Johnny Sexton, will be back on home ground in time for the 2015 World Cup?

Sexton, 29, appears set to quit French Top 14 club Racing Metro at the end of 2014-15, when his two-year contract is up, in order to swap Paris for Dublin and return to his beloved Leinster on a four-year IRFU contract. And that means the Lions fly-half will be completely at the disposal of Ireland head coach Schmidt as he begins his final preparations for the World Cup campaign, which for the reigning RBS 6 Nations champions begins on September 19, 2015 with a pool game Canada at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

No more worrying the weekend before an international whether Sexton will report for duty at Carton House crocked from a Top 14 slog just 24 hours previously, as was Schmidt’s experience during his debut Six Nations campaign last February.

And certainly an end to concerns the fatigued playmaker, already a fortnight into the new Top 14 campaign having started Racing’s opening two league matches, will be more prone to injury on Ireland duty than his well-rested comrades serving under the IRFU’s player welfare programme.

“The IRFU do not comment on player contract speculation,” a spokesman said yesterday but you can be sure that once the ‘i’s’ have been dotted and the ‘t’s’ all crossed, Sexton will be welcomed back into the Irish rugby fold with open arms.

The same frustrations Schmidt experienced over the player last season will no doubt reappear this November and the following February and March when Ireland play their Guinness Series Test matches in the autumn and defend the Six Nations title in the spring but this time around, the New Zealander will at least have the comfort of knowing the situation will now be a temporary inconvenience.

By next August, Sexton should be back on board as Ireland play their World Cup warm-up games against the Scots, Welsh (twice) and English and no-one will be happier than his former Leinster boss Schmidt.

IRFU chief executive Philip Browne must also be feeling like Christmas has come early for Irish rugby in the wake of Sexton declining the four-year contract on offer from Racing as well as interest from European champions Toulon.

The French will be feeling as miffed now as the IRFU bigwigs were in November 2012 when the fly-half dropped the bombshell he was leaving Leinster and Ireland behind for pastures new, frustrated by the governing body’s perceived hardball approach.

That was supposed to have opened the floodgates for a mass exodus of Irish talent but the IRFU learned the hard lesson of losing their star player and did its utmost to ensure no-one followed him out the door.

lRugby World Cup officials will this morning reveal the 41 training bases to be used by teams at next year’s England 2015 tournament. Ireland are believed to be using four training bases for their pool games in Cardiff, the Olympic Stadium in East London and Wembley against Canada, Romania, Italy and France and, they are hoping, into the knockout stages.