Farrell needs a No.10 who will put heat on Sexton
John Fallon believes lack of clarity over a successor at fly-half could derail Ireland
The last thing Andy Farrell needs are doubts about whether Six Nations games will be impacted by Covid-19 because the Irish coach has enough uncertainty about himself and his squad to deal with just now.
It’s just over a year since he took over from Joe Schmidt after a disastrous World Cup campaign in Japan and, while this is the third Six Nations squad he has announced, in many ways it still feels like his first as the progress expected last year just did not happen in such a truncated season.
Farrell and Ireland could badly do with an uninterrupted string of games, not least as he has plenty of options to try out as they keep one eye on the World Cup in France in 2023 while also having a tilt at the Six Nations.
The one position he finds himself in a quandary is the one which all his predecessors in the professional era have had the least difficulty in filling and while Johnny Sexton clearly has some mileage left on the clock, he’s going to be
38 by the time the next World Cup comes round and a viable replacement just isn’t emerging.
The No.10 jersey has been handed on seamlessly in the professional era, from Eric Elwood to David Humphreys to Ronan O’Gara and on to Sexton in the past decade.
In each case an apprenticeship was served before the young gun pushed his way through.
Humphreys chalked up 72 appearances before O’Gara took over and clocked 128 before Sexton dislodged him and is now five games short of 100, although with 860 points he still has a bit to do to surpass O’Gara’s 1,083.
The arrival of former New Zealand U20 skipper Tyler Bleyendaal in Munster provided a possible replacement for Sexton, but by the time he became Irish qualified through the residency rule, his career was blighted by a succession of injuries which eventually forced his retirement.
Joey Carbery, born in New Zealand but growing up in Kildare, emerged and was shifted south from Leinster to get game-time with Munster and while he impressed he, too, encountered serious injury issues and has not played in over a year.
It has meant little competition for Sexton even though he has played 80 minutes only once, against England last March, in his last 16 games for Ireland while for Leinster he has completed two full games in the last 18, going back to December
2018.
Conor Murray’s dip in form a year ago saw five or six scrum-halves come to the fore and challenge him. John Cooney led the way, also providing a quality kicking option, but Farrell is not an admirer and there is no place in the squad for the Ulster player.
Luke McGrath and the recently-qualified Kiwi Jamison Gibson-Park have impressed for Leinster, Kieran Marmion and Caolin Blade likewise for Connacht, but it has been the displays of former Irish U20 Grand Slam winner – and fellow Limerick native – Craig Casey in Munster which has driven Murray to rediscover form and he will be the starting No.9 heading into this campaign. But no out-half has emerged to seriously challenge Sexton. JJ Hanrahan’s form has been inconsistent with Munster and while Jack Carty master-minded Connacht’s superb win over Leinster with a 25-point haul, his release from the squad pre-Christmas by Farrell told its own story.
It’s hard to see Billy Burns, hardly setting the world alight with Ulster and with just one Irish start in three caps, challenging Sexton nor Ross Byrne, below, who has not looked like prising the Leinster shirt from him at any stage and certainly not in his eleven Irish appearances, just two of which he started.
So Farrell needs Sexton, who he appointed captain a year ago, to remain fit but he can hardly build a 2023 World Cup side around him.
“The other 10s in the group, are here on merit,” said Farrell. “They haven’t many caps between them but in the time that they’ve had over the last year, it’s been unbelievably valuable to them and we’ve seen the growth internally and we expect to see it continue externally as well.”
Paul O’Connell has been added to the management team as forwards coach and Farrell is expecting an impact from that.
“The main remit for Paul to come into our environment is to make the group better. He’s certainly going to add just by being himself. On top of that, he’s going to make the coaching staff stronger as well. We’re an integrated coaching staff that bounce off each other.”
Ireland have never rushed players through — Sexton was 24 when he made his debut — but the likes of back rowers Caelan Doris and Will Connors, full-back Hugo Keenan, hooker Ronan Kelleher and another recently-qualified Kiwi, wing James Lowe, will all be hoping to take excellent form for Leinster on to the international stage, with another big campaign expected from lock James Ryan, Ireland’s captain in-waiting.
Ireland are a bit light at the moment at tighthead so it’s a big boost for Tadhg Furlong to have played his first game in a year this weekend but they are well served in most other positions, although hooker Rob Herring needs a big tournament as they are still looking for the sort of impact Rory Best brought.
But if Irish fans are concerned about the medium to long-term issue at out-half Sexton, troubled recently by hamstring issues, is feeling good heading into this Six Nations.
He said: “The Irish teams that I have played in that have been successful, whether it was the team that won back-toback championships or the Grand Slam, they’ve often come off the back of a disappointing campaign beforehand where we’ve learned a lot of lessons and come back in as a similar kind of group with a few new faces and put the wrongs right.
“There’s a sense of that I think. We didn’t get what we wanted out of last year. We were close in terms of it coming down to the last game of the campaign against France and we just came up short. Hopefully that’s a good omen.”