Johnny Sexton's departure leaves Ireland in search of new talisman and new captain

Whoever the new skipper is, they will have enormous shoes to fill now that Sexton has brought the curtain down on his illustrious career.

SO LONG SKIPPER: Ireland's Jonathan Sexton applauds the fans after the Rugby World Cup 2023 quarter final match at Stade de France.

Ninety-nine men have captained the Ireland rugby team. The question next year, when Andy Farrell’s side get back on the horse that is the Six Nations, is if there will a hundredth, or if the head coach reverts to one of the four remaining players who have held the honour before.

Peter O’Mahony wore the armband for the first time against Italy ten years ago. James Ryan, Iain Henderson and Tadhg Furlong have since followed in those footsteps.

Whoever it is will have enormous shoes to fill now that Johnny Sexton has brought the curtain down on his illustrious career.

The 38-year old was asked to lead the team out for the first time against Russia at the 2019 World Cup, but he wasn’t seen as an ideal candidate in some eyes when Rory Best vacated the position permanently after the team’s return from the Far East four years ago.

Sexton’s work rate and high standards were already legendary but that ferocious desire to succeed in every minute of every day was exactly what some people worried about.

Was he too driven, too demanding? Did he lack the diplomacy necessary?

His age was a factor too. Sexton was 34 then and the thought that he might stick around to make another World Cup seemed ludicrous. His stated goal at that point was the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021 and even that seemed a stretch.

When Warren Gatland neglected to pick him for that, he zoomed in on this year’s Word Cup and, while Ireland failed to get beyond the old sticking point of a quarter-final, Sexton’s performances and leadership were, by and large, exemplary.

He is joined in retirement now by Keith Earls, another veteran whose input and presence off the pitch was equally treasured by fellow players and the coaches, so change will be afoot come 2024 with different voids to be filled.

Ireland's Johnny Sexton (and head coach Andy Farrell.

“Johnny and Earlsy have been able to show to the younger lads the qualities that are required to be a top, top-class player,” said Henderson.

“I'm sure the learnings that those guys will take will definitely lay a firm foundation for the Irish squads of the future.

“The guys in their early 20s were born in the 2000s, it pains me to say. Joe McCarthy, Jack Crowley: they have huge occasions ahead of them and hopefully they'll build on nights like [last Saturday] to be able to potentially deliver on the big stage in the future.”

Ireland have been operating with a layered chain of command for some time now. Leadership groups are all the rage across sport and theirs has long included O’Mahony.

Furlong, Ryan, Henderson and Garry Ringrose. Hugo Keenan and Caelan Doris were co-opted onto that collective more recently to further future-proof the officer class for the years to come.

O’Mahony may be approaching the end of his own career if his comments after the weekend’s loss to the All Blacks are anything to go by. Henderson is 31, not all that old for a lock, but then is he guaranteed his place in the side?

The Ulsterman ousted James Ryan in the side during the tournament and that in itself places a doubt over the latter in this debate too. Furlong, Ringrose and Keenan don’t strike as obvious candidates so maybe Doris ticks most boxes given his age and his status in the team.

It’s no slight on any of them that they lack the sheer star power that Sexton brought to the table. In fact, his departure from the scene means that Ireland will lack a bona fide ‘name’ in their ranks for the first time in over a generation. No O’Driscoll, O’Connell or O’Gara.

Does that matter? It’s not that the team is bereft of world-class individuals. Far from it. If anything it may be more of a thing for the media and for the IRFU’s marketing department in that sense and so much of what they have built as a group will remain.

Sexton, Henderson, O’Mahony and Jack Conan have been among those to declare that this was the most enjoyable rugby experience of their career but the ending of it will always sit uncomfortably with them.

Henderson spoke last week about his previous quarter-final exits, in 2015 and in 2019, and why his belief that this time would be different, that this squad was different, was total. It was different, he said after the game, just not in the way that really mattered.

“It's a different feeling to '19. In '19 we were well beaten and [on Saturday], to the end of the game, we were in it.

"A few things didn't go our way that maybe we felt should have, but that's professional sport and that's what you have to live with.”