SEXTON SCARE
Irish playmaker suffers back injury on eve of Wales clash
JOHNNY SEXTON gave Ireland a late injury scare yesterday to add another ingredient to this bubbling cauldron of a Six Nations clash. The 32-year- old fly-half struggled with a back problem in the captain’s run — leaving rookie playmaker Joey Carbery, 22, to step into the breach.
But Ireland captain Rory Best was quick to calm fears of another big loss, with Tadhg Furlong and Iain Henderson already out.
‘He’s just getting older, so he needed longer to warm up,’ he said. ‘He came into the tailend of the session. He let the subs run at the start and the starters finished. No concerns.’ The issue adds intrigue to the quiet rivalry between Ireland and Wales, which has simmered all week. At the Aviva Stadium today we are set for a rugby feast.
First skirmish — head coaches Warren Gatland and Joe Schmidt. Dublin may not be big enough for both Kiwis. There is mutual respect but the hint of a grudge.
It is unlikely either will get to coach the All Blacks, with New Zealand expected to opt for assistant Ian Foster after the World Cup in 2019, but the undercurrent of the ‘big job’ battle flows deep. Gatland has not goaded Schmidt this year but in 2014 he accused Ireland of ‘ kicking the leather off the ball’, which riled Schmidt. The Ireland boss, 52, was annoyed this week that the ‘opposition coach has tried to create a story and people have picked it up without doing their own analysis’.
Then there is the landmark 54-year- old Gatland passes today. His 100th Test for Wales falls against the side that sacked him 17 years ago — and that still stings.
Perhaps the last decade has shown Ireland what they could have won: three championships and two Grand Slams means there is a green tinge of envy.
For all their club dominance in Europe — six Heineken Cups to Wales’s zero — Ireland have never had an era-defining Six Nations side, despite a Slam in 2009 and a couple of other titles. Unlike Warren’s Wales.
So, to the combative playmakers. Sexton and Dan Biggar seem cut from the same cloth, as Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones noted. ‘ They are similar players, both aggressive in the right ways,’ he said. And Liam Williams, another Lions tourist, has a special nickname for his Irish pal.
‘I always call Johnny “my coach” and I’ll do so again today,’ said the wing, back after an abdominal injury. ‘He’s class, there are no ifs or buts about it.’ Another conflict comes from the converted Kiwi centres — Ireland’s Bundee Aki and Hadleigh Parkes of Wales — who resume a rivalry that started in New Zealand club rugby.
Even the statistics provide intrigue. Ireland have not lost at home in this tournament for five years while Wales are unbeaten in three against the Irish. Something has to give but Williams summed up the whole event perfectly: ‘We’ll have a war in the afternoon and then a couple of pints in the evening!’