Rugby: Rugby-Ireland’s Sexton loving life and ready to grasp the missing prize

PARIS (Reuters) – Ireland captain Johnny Sexton has won everything rugby has to offer with one notable exception and the 38-year-old looks in top form as he sets out to fill that gap in his trophy cabinet before he retires at the end of the World Cup.

Sexton is expecting one of the toughest games of his 123-test career in the World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand on Saturday but the lure of the prize that lies waiting to be collected in Paris on Oct. 28 is strong.

“Trying to win a World Cup, it’s something to go and get. It’s not something that puts pressure on me,” the flyhalf told reporters this week.

“It’s something you dream of – probably not as a kid, because when we were kids we didn’t dream of Ireland winning a World Cup (but) I suppose we have put ourselves in a position to do that now.”

World Rugby Player of the Year in 2018, Sexton has won four Six Nations titles and two Grand Slams with Ireland, won one test series and drawn another with the British and Irish Lions, and claimed four European Cups with Leinster.

He has been a world class placekicker throughout his career but his game is so much more than that with teak-tough defence, supreme game management and the ability to unleash the backs outside him.

His loop-around to help create space for fullback Hugo Keenan’s first try against Scotland last week showed there was plenty of life in the old legs yet, even if he was withdrawn by coach Andy Farrell once the game was in the bag.

“Johnny’s playing unbelievable rugby even if he is an absolute nightmare about the place,” scrumhalf Conor Murray, Sexton’s halfback partner for much of his 14-year test career, said with a laugh on Wednesday.

“Any player, when they’re playing well they tend to be in better moods around the place and Johnny’s an unbelievable leader of the team but expects really high standards of himself.

“Whatever age he is, he’s playing some of the best rugby of his life. He kind of reflects the mood of the camp … he’s just another player that’s loving life at the moment.”

Two key themes for Ireland on their 17-match unbeaten run have been a resolute focus on the next challenge and the collective, so Sexton was wary of embracing the idea that the World Cup offered him a chance of personal completion.

“It’s not something I’ve thought about in terms of my own career,” he added.

“I will think about it more when I finish. It’s all geared up to Saturday and it’s another massive challenge for this team — the biggest we have faced — we are looking forward to it.”

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Toby Davis)