Coach hails playmaker Sexton's skills

pulse

February 26, 2017 1:56 AM

Johnny Sexton's masterful performance in returning from a five-week injury break to steer Ireland to a 19-9 win over France came as no surprise to coach Joe Schmidt.

Fly-half Jonathan Sexton kicked 11 points against France to keep alive Ireland's Six Nations title hopes

The 31-year-old fly-half kicked 11 points to keep alive Ireland's Six Nations title hopes and will be expected to do it all again against Wales in a fortnight.

Victory in Cardiff, against a Wales side whose title hopes disappeared with a 29-13 defeat by Scotland on Saturday, could set up a potential title-decider against defending champions England in Dublin next month.

Eddie Jones's defending Grand Slam champions play Italy at Twickenham on Sunday and then host the resurgent Scots in Dublin next month.

"Based on experience it is not the first time he (Sexton) has done it," said Schmidt. "He prepares incredibly well and has such a competitive edge.

"It is great to have someone who everyone has confidence in, he makes a call and everyone backs him," the Ireland boss added.

"He has never navigated us round the pitch as well as he did today for a while," added the New Zealander, who kept Sexton going for all but the final 11 minutes at Lansdowne Road.

Schmidt sxplained how he had been able to give British and Irish Lions playmaker Sexton, who has not completed 80 minutes since last October, a little more time than he intended.

"The stop-start nature of the game when there were several scrums at a time allowed him a bit of a breather," he explained.

"He was really, really positive in a measured way. He varied the game especially in the second half because we felt we couldn't use ourselves up too much and instead tire them out.

Destiny 'in our hands'

"It allowed us to keep the pressure on, plus he never shirks his defensive duties.

"We aimed to keep him on till the 55th minute at the latest but as he had a two-and-a-half minute break after a tough hit we kept him on," added the 51-year-old New Zealander.

Schmidt, bidding to deliver Ireland's third Six Nations title in four years, said he was not thinking ahead to the final match with England but admitted it was in Ireland's hands whether that was a title-deciding game.

"Our destiny is in our hands," said Schmidt.

"I think the Championship is super, it is massively intense and we were on the edge of our seats today."

Schmidt said there would be no question of taking Wales for granted, especially as he felt they had been slightly unlucky against Scotland.

"They lost on the scoreboard but had two tries scratched out," said Schmidt. "For me they seemed to have a lot of control of the game and we can testify how effective the Scots are at finishing.

"You don't go to Cardiff and get anything easy because the Welsh take a heck of a lot of pride in their game and have some super players."

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