Ireland coach drops hint fly-half role is up for grabs

He might kick the odd “wounded duck”, but Paddy Jackson’s 18 points with the boot in a record 63-10 win over Italy could scupper Johnny Sexton’s hopes of starting for Ireland against France, said coach Joe Schmidt.

Ireland made amends for the shock of their 27-22 opening defeat to Scotland in the Six Nations with a commanding and, at times classy, performance in Rome that saw CJ Stander and Craig Gilroy score a hat-trick of tries apiece against an overrun Azzurri.

Ireland are the 2015 champions but their first win in this year’s tournament came without Sexton, who was left off the squad as a precaution amid his continuing recovery from a calf problem.

Schmidt said the inspirational fly-half as well as fellow injury casualties Peter O’Mahoney and Andrew Trimble “will definitely be available for our next game”.

Internal competition

But the New Zealander, who led Ireland to a historic first win over the All Blacks last year, seems to be relishing the prospect of some internal competition. “Hopefully there’s a few headaches now in terms of selection,” said Schmidt. “Last week, when we were so far down, to lead us back into the game, he did really well,” Schmidt said of Jackson. However, the 20-year-old’s wobbly second conversion earned less praise. Schmidt quipped: “The actual flight of the ball looked like a wounded duck.”

For fans, a fully fit and fired-up Sexton could add the X-factor, but Schmidt added: “I guess this window has allowed Paddy to stick his hand up and say, ‘well, that shouldn’t be an automatic choice’.”