Ireland aim to kick start their Six Nations campaign with a win in Cardiff today - something they haven't managed since 2013.
Johnny Sexton retains the captaincy he was handed last year. The second-placed all-time points scorer for Ireland was handed the position by Andy Farrell , with his Leinster teammate filling in while the outhalf was injured.
With the debate ongoing as to who should be the long term captain, with a view towards the World Cup in 2023, many have called for the young lock forward to be handed the reigns to start building from the ground up.
Two former Irish captains Mick Galwey and Nick Popplewell are in agreement that it's not as simple as just handing the responsibilities over to the young second row.
"Sexton is captain, so to leave him out of a team, not alone are you dropping your out-half, but you’re dropping your captain and it’s a big call by Andy Farrell to make him captain.”
“Realistically you don’t drop your captain”
“The captaincy thing takes a while. I remember I was captain of Shannon and I was captain of Munster”
“Funnily enough when I came to the end of my career, it was nearly a case where if I wasn’t captain I wasn’t comfortable.”
“It's something that takes a while to get used. It sits well with some people it doesn’t sit well with others” said Galwey.
Popplewell, the former Leinster, Ireland and Lions prop was in agreement with Galwey.
“A very valid point, in fairness, if they are going to stick with Ryan – it was a fantastic opportunity. It's very hard to influence a match when you’re in the second row or front row. By and large, Ryan had the badge of being captain but the out-half or the scrum-half is the one calling the shots. It does give a little bit of a blanket there for a couple of matches to take some pressure off him”
An issue that hasn't gone away for the past two campaigns is the performances offered by the half-back pairing of Murray and Sexton. Possibly the greatest half-back pairing the country has produced (with O' Gara and Stringer a very close second place) neither Murray nor Sexton have hit their once lofty heights of 2018.
Popplewell says that its time for Sexton to prove his value or risk facing the bench.
“If Sexton’s not firing, that’s it, you’re scuppered and the encumbered that’s coming in really doesn’t have a chance to get any kind of control over a game, why? Because he’s playing 12 minutes at the end when basically it's very hard to dig out a position at that stage.”
Todays game kicks off in Cardiff at 3pm. You can hear the full preview with Mick and Nick here.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7e2nR5c4velVWVzuMjhJMx?si=ZViwg6kdTPCb_ktgjgfISw
