Why Jonny Sexton Will Be the Key Man for Ireland at the 2015 World Cup

Ireland secured their second successive Six Nations title in March and go forth to the World Cup with a genuine chance of making the semi-finals for the first time.

The Irish are in a group with France, Italy, Canada and Romania, having avoided the big guns from the Southern Hemisphere, as well as swerving the kind of misfortune that has landed England, Wales and Australia in the same pool.

If the Irish win their section, an outcome that will hinge on their clash with Les Bleus, they are likely to face Argentina, who are favourites to finish runners up to New Zealand in Pool C, in the last eight.

A route to the semi-finals has never looked so passable when you consider they had to beat Australia to win their group in 2011 and ended up losing to Wales in the next round.

Joe Schmidt has built a team able to play more than one way, as we saw in the Six Nations. Against France, England and Wales they relied on a kick-and-chase style that demands accuracy and little consideration for putting the ball through hands.

But when they needed to score heavily against the Scots, they switched tack and opened the taps on a back line that can cause huge damage, with forwards running off shoulders and busting holes, sending defences into disarray.

The key to this adaptability is undoubtedly their fly-half Johnny Sexton.

The man who plies his trade for Racing Metro could yet end 2015 with a clean sweep of Six Nations, the French domestic title, European Champions Cup success and the World Cup. It’s an outlandish thought, but Sexton can be an outlandish talent.

Emerging from the shadow of Ronan O’Gara post 2009, the Leinsterman took Irish fly-half play to a new dimension with his silky handling and ability to orchestrate a mesmeric Leinster backline that was largely replicated at the international level.

He was outstanding as Leinster swept to the Heineken Cup in 2009, 2011 and 2012, that middle triumph coming in a game that Sexton almost single-handedly transformed after a nightmarish first half against Northampton.

Lions duty naturally came calling in 2013, and he became the first test-winning fly-half since Gregor Townsend in 1997.

After his starring role in the 2014 Six Nations, Ireland bade farewell to their talisman Brian O’Driscoll. Sexton may well have felt the eyes that all looked to the man in the No. 13 jersey for so long to inspire their team switch their gaze to his own role as the new man to make Ireland tick.

And that is exactly what Sexton does, almost to the point where if his fitness is in doubt, a shadow is cast over the team’s chances of success.

Take this recent championship. Sexton was completing an enforced layoff due to too many bangs to the head and sat out Ireland’s opening victory in Rome.

He returned to face France and was lucky not to suffer another concussion as he collided more than once with French behemoth Mathieu Bastareaud. But he was the key to that Irish win. Time and time again his laser-guided restarts made Irish chasers favourites to regain possession from their own restarts, and his kicks to the corners pinned France back in their own territory. In harness with his Lions half-back partner Conor Murray, Sexton was virtually unplayable.

England came next and the pair repeated the dose, asking the visitors if they could handle the accuracy of the aerial bombardment they commenced and finding the Red Rose men wilting under the pressure.

A simple tactic was working beautifully because of the quality of the man executing it. He even found the time to smash opposite number George Ford back in a dump tackle.

Then Sexton tweaked his hamstring and limped off to have it iced. Ireland looked like a fisherman flailing about for his rudder in the dark in the 20 minutes Sexton was missing. England would have had them sweating buckets but for a late disallowed try.

Without Sexton, Ireland looked far more vulnerable.

Then he had an off day and proved that even with him, things could go wrong if he wasn’t on his A-game. There were a host of dubious calls, as highlighted by Rugby Pigs, that contributed to defeat in Cardiff, but Sexton was certainly far from his best, exemplified by this weak tackle on Jonathan Davies, and Ireland suffered.

After the Welsh had set a huge target with their final-day demolition of Italy, Sexton had a different job. Rather than sending the ball to the heavens to heap pressure on the Scots at Murrayfield, he had to unleash his runners and start working those old Leinster wraparounds drilled into him over the years by the man now in charge of his country. Schmidt asked Sexton to unfurl the tool belt, and his fly-half obliged. Ireland were champions.

He can’t do it on his own, of course. Paul O’Connell needs to rage for a few more months against the dying of the light. Sean O’Brien needs to pick up where he left off in the Six Nations, and Conor Murray needs to remain as sharp and reliable as Sexton’s partner in crime.

There is quality everywhere you look in this Irish side. But Sexton, on his day, is the only one whispered about as the world’s best in his position. Wales fly-half Dan Biggar said as much in an interview with Wales Online.

We haven’t even mentioned his goal-kicking yet. He was probably harshly treated for the miss that would have finished off the All Blacks in 2013, but in the main he is reliable.

According to goalkickers.co.za, he was the third most valuable kicker based on his success rate and the difficulty of his attempts.

It is a big burden for Sexton to carry, but he seems to have the temperament for it. One man who has operated alongside both Sexton and the man he now rivals for that "best in the world" tag is Jared Payne, Ireland’s imported outside centre. Perhaps the last word is best left to him, per ESPNScrum.

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Johnny is a world-class player, one of the best 10s - if not the best - in the world at the moment. In terms of his range of skills and his game control, he is right up there with those players I have played with and against. They're both very similar. They are pretty relaxed and get their message across. They are able to control a game incredibly well and are two players who always have time on the ball.

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