Give us 60 minutes of your best Johnny and we’ll try to see her home from there.
Joe Schmidt could ill afford to lose four of his best play in one fell, foul swoop.
With Sean O’Brien, Peter O’Mahony and Paul O’Connell missing for the World Cup quarter final with Argentina, and with Jared Payne already back home, the Ireland coach needed a fitness boost. Hell, the country needed a fitness boost.
It came on Friday morning, two-fold.
Johnny Sexton and Keith Earls both trained at the Millennium Stadium. They did enough to see that they will be back out on that pitch for kick-off at 1pm, this Sunday.
In his press briefing, today, Schmidt sought to allay fears that Sexton’s groin injury could flare up again. He only managed a passable job.
“We’ve allowed Johnny to build his way back into the week. He had a fairly light start to the week, he trained fully this morning and we believe that he’s ready to go.”
Sexton has not done too much kicking this week as Ireland look to avoid putting undue strain on the out-half.
It was a clearing kick, from hand, that tweaked his abductor last Sunday. Sexton gingerly jogged around the pitch until France No.8 Louis Picamoles put him out of his misery with a gargantuan hit to the ribs.
Schmidt has been working with Sexton for the past six seasons and, where some teams might target weakness, he sees strength and resilience.
“If he’s fit, he’s fit,” the coach declared.
“Before we played France in the Six Nations a lot of people asked questions and he was fine.
“We don’t tend to take too many risks with players. We have copped a few injuries, but we’ve managed people through the week.
“We have a fantastic medical crew: a super strength, conditioning and rehabilitation group and Johnny himself is ready to go.”
Chris Henry, meanwhile, will fill in for O’Brien at openside.
The Ulster back-row did a stand job, off the bench, last week as he replaced O’Mahony before taking the fight to France.
Henry said, “The majority of this team have not played too many quarter finals of a World Cup, so it is the biggest game of my career.
“It is hard to keep emotions on track, because of the magnitude of it. We just want to get out there and do the best we can.”
He added, “We hope that we can go out there, do ourselves justice, get stuck in… We have a chance to make history… It’s about going out there [on Sunday] and having no regrets after the game.”
