Schmidt plays down Sexton injury as Irish toil to victory
Joe Schmidt has insisted Johnny Sexton will be “fine” to face Samoa despite the stand-off icing his troublesome thigh after being withdrawn in the 35-0 win over Russia.
Sexton captained Ireland for the first time yesterday, but was replaced by Jack Carty for the second half of his side’s five-try win over the Bears.
British and Irish Lions stand-off Sexton had declared himself 100 per cent fit to take on Russia after missing Ireland’s shock 19-12 loss to Japan with a thigh complaint.
But head coach Schmidt still believes Sexton, pictured inset, will be ready for Ireland’s final Pool A encounter in Fukuoka a week on Saturday.
Joey Carbery was a late withdrawal having suffered another ankle complaint, but Schmidt insisted both men will be ready for the Samoans.
“Johnny’s all good and will be fine for Samoa, and Joey is good,” said Schmidt. “I think Joey would have been okay to play, but Conor Murray was very keen to play. So Joey is hopefully fine.”
Rob Kearney, Peter O’mahony, Rhys Ruddock, Andrew Conway and Garry Ringrose all crossed as Ireland secured a vital bonuspoint win over Russia.
The victory puts Ireland back on course for the quarter-finals, with a win over Samoa all that is needed to qualify for the last eight. Kearney raced in Ireland’s quickest-ever World Cup try after just 90 seconds, with a typical Schmidt set play. However they laboured through the contest, always likely to seal the bonus-point win but making hard work of their ultimate goal. Despite some frustrations Schmidt insisted he remains content with Ireland’s situation, with his side still able to top Pool A even in spite of their defeat by Japan. “I don’t think we lost our way against Russia, we just didn’t convert some chances,” said Schmidt.
“I think there were more things that pleased me than disappointed me definitely. We started well again, with two early tries. Then we made a bit of hard work of it.”