Schmidt sweet on Sexton return to fold

Joe Schmidt says Johnny Sexton is positive about returning to these shores next season and that his star fly-half’s move from Racing Metro to Leinster will be really beneficial to Ireland’s cause.

The Six Nations-winning national head coach was speaking to TV3 yesterday at the channel’s new season launch and asked to comment on the &Lions out-half’s prospective move from Paris back to his native Dublin next summer in time for Ireland’s 2015 World Cup campaign, Schmidt said: “I’ve spoke to Johnny and that he’s pretty positive about coming back.”

“He’s a guy who lives week to week and that’s the way a professional rugby player works.”

Schmidt, pictured, saw the real positives coming after next autumn’s World Cup, when TV3 will serves as the tournament’s official broadcaster.

“Probably long-term, really beneficial,” he said. “In the short-term of the World Cup, we’re only going to get him back, hopefully for Johnny, in the middle of June, because the Top14, they play their play-off matches in June.

“So it’s not going to be perfect for this World Cup but I think beyond that, and even for the lead-in into that, it’d be nice knowing that he’s locked in with us.”