Johnny Sexton: Ireland’s best yet to come

Jonathan Sexton has no doubt Ireland’s best is yet to come as they approach the Rugby World Cup and the out-half believes the team can do just that by embracing the attacking approach that cut Scotland to shreds last March and retained the Six Nations title.

Joe Schmidt’s side scored four tries that day in Murrayfield, as many as they had managed in their four previous games to that point in the championship, and many hailed it as a breakthrough for a team that had been solid rather than spectacular.

Sexton pointed to a defence that has conceded five tries in the first two warm-ups against Wales and Scotland as another area to improve, but it was his take on the side’s attack that stood out.

“We showed in patches how good we can be in attack and we need to take some of the bits where when we were forced to go into that against Scotland,” he explained.

“Even just the attitude we had in that game, try and take little bits of that and bring it into the games going forward. Defence wins World Cups.

“It hasn’t been good enough the first two games, so hopefully we can go about rectifying that.

“Like I said, our attack, we have great ideas, but there’s a lot that needs to happen for those ideas to come to fruition in matches. We’ll see.”

Schmidt has spoken many times before about the limited window of opportunity that exists for a test coach to work with his players and so the perception has been this extended pre-season together with his squad should offer the opportunity to expand that attacking play book.

Sexton took that point on board yesterday, but added perceptions aren’t always spot on.

Against Wales in the Six Nations, for example, there were three or four occasions when he felt Ireland were just a fraction away from nailing moves that would have led to tries.

Had half of them come off the current perception of Schmidt’s side might be markedly different, he believes.

And he backed up his argument by pointing out Ireland don’t kick any more than a side like New Zealand, though he accepts the All Blacks have claimed more tries.

Slim margins, then, but he does clearly feel the adventurous mindset of Murrayfield last March, if adopted in the upcoming World Cup, could pay dividends for an Irish team many believe is a serious shot to be involved up to and including the final weekend.

“I’m only just thinking myself here: this is not something we’ve talked about as a team, but I just found that when we scored a try or scored a penalty (in that 40-10 win that) the mindset was ‘right, let’s go again and get other scores’,” said Sexton, speaking yesterday to encourage supporters to fly Aer Lingus to England for the tournament in England,

“Sometimes the temptation in test matches is to shut shop and, when you have that lead, is to play the percentages.

“And that’s the right thing to do a lot of the time. But it would be great to have that attitude from one to 15 going forward.”