Injury prevents Ireland’s pivot pair playing together
Jonathan Sexton supports Conor Murray’s “smart” call not to make Ireland’s showdown with the All Blacks this weekend his first match in five months.
Murray has not played since June, when he damaged his neck during Ireland’s tour of Australia. He’s been training, and coach Joe Schmidt said after beating Argentina last weekend that he’d let Murray decide on his availability. Yesterday, the halfback was released from the squad for the rest of the month, along with centre Robbie Henshaw, who injured a hamstring in the warmup and had to withdraw from the Pumas test.
“I obviously stayed in touch with Conor a lot over the injury to see how he has been getting on, and all the time (he’s been) improving, but I suppose he’s just trying to make sure he can get it right from now, and (it) not be an issue going forward,” Sexton said of his long-time halves partner.
“It’s probably a smart thing. It’s a big ask. If you’re out for a few weeks and you’re asked to play the All Blacks, that’s tough enough. But if you’re out for the period of time he has been out for, it would be a big step up.”
Kieran Marmion started at No 9 on Sunday and Luke McGrath was the reserve, and they should be the halfbacks again against New Zealand on Sunday (NZT) at Lansdowne Road.
Losing Henshaw was a bigger blow, and puts pressure on Garry Ringrose to recover from the hip knock which ruled him out of the Argentina match. Will Addison stepped in to make his first start and didn’t let Ireland down, but Ireland will want to restore Ringrose with Bundee Aki. They were the midfield when Ireland beat England in March for the Six Nations Grand Slam.
Sexton, up for world player of the year with two All Blacks, wanted Ireland’s best on the field this weekend.
“You can’t lie about it and say it’s just another game,” he said. “We’ve had it on our radar for a while, definitely.”
Sexton helped Ireland beat New Zealand in 2016 in Chicago to end a 111-year drought, and said they want to add a first win at home, too.
“It has been two years since we’ve played them last but there has been a lot of changeover from our team,” he said. “We’re looking forward to seeing how far we’ve come in two years and where we are in the world.”
Ireland are ranked No 2, and have a chance to be No for the first time.
“These are the big games that you do all the work for, you do all the practice for,” Sexton said.
“You don’t get a chance, you know, they’ve been No 1 team in the world for nine years, you’ve got a small chance to change that.
“Over the years we’ve ticked off a little bit of history along the way with winning in Argentina, winning in South Africa for the first time, beating New Zealand for the first time, so to beat them in Ireland for the first time would be another little bit of history that this group can create.
“It’s one you don’t want to let pass you by.”
Sexton has two wins and a draw in 11 matches against the All Blacks for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions.