Oddly enough, the Irish outhalf was not queried about the possibility of playing with a target on his head.
Johnny Sexton’s presence at the Irish team announcement, this afternoon, took some pressure off Joe Schmidt after some last-minute tinkering with the Ireland squad.
Not exactly hungry for the limelight, Schmidt is usually in demand for the bulk of his press briefings. Last week, for example, Jamie Heaslip did not get a single question posed to him.
However, with Sexton returning to Paris in an Irish jersey since his departure from Racing Métro, the No.10’s opinion on Saturday’s game was sought.
First up, though, Sexton brushed off worries about him nursing a sore shoulder when substituted in the final minutes of the home draw with Wales. He told us:
“I’m okay now, I just got a bang on top of the head and it just compressed my neck a little bit. But I’m fit to go and really looking forward to it…
“I’ll be fine – I probably felt the way front-rowers feel every day, but as a soft out-half I just didn’t hide it as well.”
France have not beaten Ireland since August 2011 [losing three and drawing two] but Sexton was not having any suggestions that Ireland would be expecting victory to fall into their hands.
Sexton pointed out that Ireland have only beaten Les Bleus twice in Paris in recent history. You have to go back to 1972 to tally another victory alongside the championship clincher in 2014 and Brian O’Driscoll’s hat-trick in 2000. Sexton says:
“I don’t think you can ever go to Paris confident.
“They are never beaten over there, it’s a tough place to go.
“Just because we’ve had a little purple patch against them doesn’t mean anything now.”
France struggled for large chunks of their 23-21 win over Italy on the opening day. That being said, they did score three tries and offloaded the ball as if it were fresh and piping hot from an oven.
“We’ve only had one chance to see France under their new management, but some of the new individuals they’ve thrown in have impressed.
“They’ve got dangerous guys across the backline. I’ve played against (Jonathan) Danty a few times when I was in Paris, and he’s pretty similar to Mathieu Bastareaud in stature.
“He’s got a lot of ball-playing abilites and speed to add to that too though.
“But we’ve prepared really well for it, we’ve tried to give them the respect they deserve.”
