Sexton setback shakes Ireland's Six Nations preparations

As reverberations go, this was not on the level of Donald Trump’s election as US president nor that June morning the Brexit referendum result came in.

Yet the revelation Johnny Sexton will not be available for Ireland’s RBS 6 Nations opener at Murrayfield on Saturday brought quite a reaction.

The stock market did not slide and neither did politicians resign in their droves but bookmakers and supporters immediately recalibrated their assessments of what Ireland are capable of in this season’s Championship.