England preparation will all have revolved around one man... Johnny Sexton

YOU always know when it’s an Ireland Test week because the coaches put a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Johnny Sexton in the team dining room. It’s there 24/7 — breakfast, lunch and dinner — to remind the players that they need to shut out Ireland’s main man. Throughout every analysis or training session, Sexton’s name would constantly come up because he’s their emotional and tactical leader.

Everything Ireland do well goes through him so there would always be a huge amount of focus on how to limit his influence and suffocate him.

Now that he has taken over the captaincy from Rory Best, he is even more influential, so England’s emphasis will only multiply.

In training, the opposition No 10 will be wearing a green bib and will constantly hear defenders shouting ‘Smash Sexton! I’ve got Sexton!’ It’s a bit of a short straw because whoever wears that bib will be on the receiving end of a few rib shots. You want them to hurt.

Sexton is a competitive character who gives his team so much energy. You want to make sure he feels every hit. Every time he passes the ball away, you’ll give him a little nudge — maybe a split second late, but legal enough that you’re not getting penalised.

If you can hit him and also get him on the floor, that means he’s out for the next phase. If they lose their general one phase at a time, that builds up. You want him to know that you’re always going to be there.

He’s a fiery personality so if he feels he’s getting rough treatment that isn’t getting picked up, then he’ll start remonstrating with the referee and throwing his toys out of the pram.

The objective is to cut down his attacking options. Give him no space to breathe and make him feel claustrophobic by lining him up from every angle. That’s all based on massive line speed.

His first instinct will probably be to pass the ball wide, so you want outside defenders rushing up into his eyeline to ‘spook’ him and put him off making the pass. He’s smart enough to see those defenders in position to either intercept or smash back the man in the tackle, so he doesn’t throw that pass.

His second instinct will be to look inside and think about making a run, but England will have heavy tacklers — Joe Marler, Courtney Lawes and Sam Underhill — flying directly at him from the ruck to apply massive inside pressure. If you get hit by one of those guys at pace, it’s like running into a baby elephant.

You know it’s working when you see Owen Farrell giving him a little ruffle of the hair when he’s just been knocked on his backside. The next phase he’ll be thinking ‘Am I going to get hit again?’ It creates some doubt in his mind. If he’s there to be hit, he’s there to be hit. He’s a target and he’s indispensable because there’s a big drop off with his understudy, Ross Byrne, who has not yet reached Sexton’s world-class levels. The outcome of the rough treatment is that Sexton starts rushing his decisions and rushing his skills. It leaves him with no time on his hands and he feels suffocated, so he starts sitting deeper and deeper. That’s a win for the defence because it makes it harder to get over the gain line. If he can’t run and he can’t pass then he has to kick it away.

The danger for England is if Sexton is allowed to kick on his own terms. When he’s playing outside Conor Murray, Ireland have the best range of kicks in the world — long, short, high and low. They have the vision to move teams around with a single kick and the accuracy to execute it perfectly.

With Jonathan Joseph on the wing and Elliot Daly at full-back — both playing out of their natural positions — Sexton and Murray will fancy their chances and put up a few testing kicks. That’s what they did when Anthony Watson deputised at No 15 at Twickenham and they scored a try with their first attempt. Easy momentum, easy points.

As a full-back, I would spend hours looking at video footage of Sexton’s body language and traits for kicking. That’s exactly what JJ and Elliot will have been doing this week.

If he’s standing on a certain side of the ruck, you know he might chip over. Is his body open or closed? Where is he looking before he gets the ball? You get little cues that you’ve picked up from the footage. You also look at the body language of people outside him… if they’re set up a certain way, you know they’re ready to chase. They’ve all got a good kick-chase in their armoury because of their Gaelic football background and you position yourself accordingly.

He’s the key man but, if England can cut him out of the game, then they should win.