OUT-HALF ITCHING TO PLAY
By DAIRE WALSH
WITH Paddy Jackson and Ian Madigan receiving the nod at out-half for Ireland’s opening World Cup warm-up tests, Jonathan Sexton’s involvement has been restricted to the squad’s training camp.
As you might expect, the Rathgar man is itching to play, but he also feels that he is reaping the rewards of a longer pre-season.
“When the plan was made at the end of last season, I thought it was a great idea to do a longer pre-season,” said Sexton.
“Then, you get into the thick of it and you just can’t wait to play games. It’s always the way it happens.
“I haven’t had a pre-season in two years. I definitely feel the benefits of it. I’ll still be blowing the first game back, definitely, as all the boys have been. I hope the long pre-season will do me good coming into the World Cup.”
Now that Ireland have progressed to second in the Rugby World Rankings, expectations will undoubtedly be high heading into the forthcoming tournament.
Yet, in spite of their excellent form throughout 2015, Sexton knows they need to focus on one game at a time.
“You’re going to probably laugh, but we haven’t looked too far past each game,” he said.
“We honestly haven’t spoken about the World Cup yet. It is very different to the last World Cup, when we came in and had a goal-setting session on day one.
“We literally have taken it block by block, so the first five weeks were getting us as fit, fast and strong as we could. The next week was about preparing for Wales, then the boys for Scotland, and it’ll be very much Wales focused next week,” Sexton commented.