Skills coach Richie Murphy trusted Johnny Sexton’s long-range ability

Eddie Butler, commentating on Jonathan Sexton’s game-winning kick in Paris for the BBC, said Ireland were only just approaching the point where a drop goal was becoming a possibility when Conor Murray fired the ball back one last time.

Matt Williams, speaking from TV3’s Ballymount studios, just shook his head and thought about the generations of old out-halves who would be thinking that their “skill level was nowhere near doing that on a dry day”, never mind on a wet French sod.

Richie Murphy, though? He was glad Sexton was so far out.

Joe Schmidt’s kicking and skills coach has worked with Sexton for 12 years now, a spell that embraces the pair’s stints with Leinster and Ireland. Murphy knew “the minute he hit it” that the ball would clear the crossbar.

“It’s incredible to get up from cramp, have a little stretch and then go and do that, but 45 metres is well within Johnny’s range, especially when he hits them well,” said Murphy. “The good thing about being further out is you have to concentrate on really hitting through the ball. “Sometimes, if you in are a little bit close, you might try and steer it over. So, the big thing was having the confidence to go and do it and having the reps behind you to know you are going to be able to do it when the pressure comes on.”

Murphy has, for years on end, seen Sexton stay behind after training to kick hundreds of drop goals. Penalties, too, which makes the one the Lions out-half missed when Ireland were 12-6 up all the more difficult to understand.

It was a kick that evoked painful memories of the one he sent wide from a similar distance and angle, and in similar circumstances, against New Zealand in 2013. One that left the door open for the All Blacks to pinch the win. A blind spot, maybe?

“I don’t believe there is,” said Murphy. “We go down the line that every kick is a straight kick. You are kicking on a target in behind the goals, so where you are on the pitch really doesn’t make any difference.”

Sexton’s skewed three-pointer wasn’t the only error Ireland made in the Six Nations opener. The normally airtight aerial game was compromised by a number of inaccurate kicks, some of them too long, others too short. The attacking game, as a whole, was short on quality.

Murphy intimated a displeasure with ref Nigel Owens’ take on French actions at the breakdown and how they slowed down ball, but he acknowledged that the focus ahead of Italy needs to be on what they can do better.

“We’re not happy that we played a game in France and didn’t come away with any tries. We’re not in this to just kick penalties and drop goals, so our focus will be to try and tighten up that attack a little bit. We have to try and apply enough pressure on Italy, to make sure that those options are put away this week. It is a difficult one. We have got to move away from that French game and just take Italy for what is in front of us.”

The expectation is that Ireland will find space and points far quicker against the Azzurri than the French, but that won’t negate the debate over whether Ireland have enough variety in their attack to break down teams that match them physically.

Murphy highlighted decision-making as the key when asked about that yesterday and that invited the follow-up question as to whether Joey Carbery could be a candidate to take up the role of a second first-receiver from 15 and lighten the load on Sexton.

Yes, was the answer, but would it rob Peter to pay Paul?

“It’s just trying to get the balance right, isn’t it? Rob [Kearney] gives us a massive amount of certainty at full-back with his aerial skills and stuff like that, so it’s a matter of trying to fit the players into the back line that we feel are ready to bring us forward from week to week.

“Joey is an incredible player, and obviously a beautiful broken-field runner, so whether he got a run at full-back it would definitely bring things to us in relation to some of our attack but, on the other side, it might take away in other things.”