By Padraic Halpin
DUBLIN (Reuters) – For the third successive World Cup, it is hard to separate Ireland’s fate from the fitness of Johnny Sexton, their captain and lynchpin who will play his last game of rugby at some point over the coming weeks.
If Ireland do break their World Cup curse and that swansong is in Paris on Oct. 28, it may well be Caelan Doris, Dan Sheehan, Garry Ringrose or Josh van der Flier vying for individual accolades.
But it is almost impossible to see Andy Farrell’s men getting there without Sexton.
The perennial World Cup under-achievers could not cope with the loss of Sexton and other key men to injury before the 2015 quarter-finals while the crushing loss to Japan four years ago was played out with their key man nursing a knock in the stands.
“Four years ago if you told me I was going to be captaining Ireland to this World Cup, I half wouldn’t have believed you but I also would have snapped your hand off for the opportunity,” the 38-year-old flyhalf said this week.
As much as Sexton’s importance is about the decade-long gap between him and a rotating cast of understudies, the Leinster man’s performance level has also incredibly not dipped with age.
The world player of the year in 2018 when he won his third of four Six Nations titles and fourth European crown with Leinster, Sexton was nominated again for the award last year.
Already the Six Nations’ highest all-time scorer, Sexton is 33 points shy of Ronan O’Gara’s Irish record of 1,083 and would need another eight points beyond that to pass Neil Jenkins and sit fourth on the all-time list of test scorers.
To do that and lead Ireland through a brutally tough draw, their skipper needs to stay fit and that has proven trickier in recent years.
Sexton managed just five games for Leinster last season due to separate groin, cheekbone and calf injuries. It was a similar story two seasons before that, although he has been mostly fit for Irish action during both periods.
The most recent injury and a suspension that kept him out of Ireland’s three warm-up games means the Sept. 9 opener against Romania will be Sexton’s first chance of gametime in six months. Getting immediately up to speed has rarely been a problem.
Once fit, expect Sexton to keep taking games by the scruff of the neck.
A key lieutenant on the pitch long before becoming captain after the last World Cup, Ireland will need that assertive and laser-focussed leadership for the entirety of the next few weeks.
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Toby Davis)
