Sexton is in Fur’ a tough day
JOHNNY Sexton is fit, and Tadhg Furlong is not, as Ireland managed a 50-per-cent return on their main injury concerns.
Captain and out-half Sexton’s availability had been pursuant to his cheekbone having healed enough to take contact.
However, the absence of Furlong asks the question: with Finlay Bealham and Tom O’Toole filling in, can Ireland go the scrummaging distance?
The news on Sexton and Furlong and the consequent effect on Ireland’s chances is linked by Wales having chosen an extremely physical — on paper at least — side.
In Sexton’s case, don’t believe the bluster about potential Welsh ‘targeting’ the Irishman — that belongs to a game far consigned to a different century.
As Sean O’Brien, a man who liked a big tackle, loved to point out when asked, when there are 28 television cameras in the ground pointing at the pitch, just what would you expect to get away with?
Tackles
What Warren Gatland has likely planned for Sexton is TRAFFIC that would be worthy of the M50 at rush hour. Tomorrow in Cardiff, there will be an endless stream of red shirts coming around corners, arriving at angles, and heading directly into Sexton’s channel. The aim here is not to do anything illegal but force the Irish player to make something in the region of 20-plus tackles, hoping his 37 yearold body won’t cope.
There is the corollary which, albeit of no interest to Gatland, will exercise Farrell in that he needs his out-half to be ready — not stiff and sore — for the following week’s crunch game against France.
Consider this too; maybe an attempt to discommode Sexton is the best thing that could happen at the opening of a Rugby World Cup year.
Demonstrate just what Ireland can expect from 37-year-old ahead of a potential sevengame campaign later in the year.
And that’s not least with the coaching staff working on when the optimum time to introduce his replacement — in this case his Leinster clubmate Ross Byrne — ought to be.
Furlong’s absence sees Bealham face up against Gareth Thomas.
Small
Bealham is by no means a small unit, his 118kgs is a similar size to Furlong, which is no bad thing when working with overall front-row balance.
The tight-head scrummages directly against the loose-head and it is here the six-foot Thomas comes in as something of an outlier at 125kgs.
Both of Ireland’s loose-heads, Andrew Porter and Cian Healy, are 106kgs (one-and-ahalf stone) lighter.
This plays into a central narrative too as Ospreys actually have two international-class loose-heads, Thomas who starts in Cardiff, and Nicky Smith.
There was some surprise Smith was left out as he had a terrific game against Leinster in Swansea in the first week of January, when he genuinely gave Michael Ala’alatoa a hard time.
Ospreys, kicking four penalties, lost 19-24 in the end but there was no-one blaming their front-tow, which also featured tomorrow’s starting tight-head Tomas Francis.
Elsewhere in green, in the continuing absence of Robbie Henshaw, Ulster’s Stuart McCloskey got the better of the three-way battle with Bundee Aki and Jamie Osbourne.
This will particularly delight the Ravenhill fans and, in particular, former Ireland star Stephen Ferris, who has been banging McCloskey’s drum week in, week out, for almost three years now.
Fade
Certainly the northerner is a big unit and a player Farrell likes a bit more than used to — this, by the way, is McCloskey’s fourth start on the spin.
It may be Aki is starting to fade from the international radar on the back of a propensity for red cards in big games.
There had been a slight chance Osbourne might get in as Wales had one surprise in their line-out, picking Joe Hawkins, a similar rookie, at inside-centre.
Still just 20 years of age, Hawkins won his first senior cap against Australia last
November and is making his Six Nations debut.
The Ulster ‘win’ at first-centre is, however, tempered by their skipper Iain Henderson being asked to sit on the bench.
Munster and
Connacht both have two players apiece in the side.
The Reds are represented by Peter O’Mahony and Kildareborn Tadhg Beirne, the Westerners by a double-up from Canberra, Bealham and Mack Hansen.