Tadhg Beirne: Peter O'Mahony and Jack Crowley can fill Johnny Sexton void

BEIRNE BABY BEIRNE: Tadhg Beirne poses for a portrait after an Ireland Rugby media conference at The Campus in Quinta da Lago, Portugal. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Tadhg Beirne is as eager as any Ireland supporter to see how life moves on after Johnny Sexton but he backs both Peter O’Mahony and Jack Crowley to fill the voids his retirement has left as both a captain and fly-half.

The 2023 Grand Slam winners begin life without their talisman of a decade in Marseille on Friday night when Ireland’s Guinness Six Nations campaign gets underway with a potentially titanic clash with France at Stade Velodrome.